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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Johnny Gillum, Paralegal at New York City Anti-Violence Project
5:07:21
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120 sec
Johnny Gillum, a paralegal at the New York City Anti-Violence Project (AVP), testifies about the challenges faced by LGBTQ communities and the organization's work in providing legal representation to vulnerable individuals. He emphasizes the impact of federal funding cuts on AVP and requests increased support from the city council.
- AVP has lost nearly half a million dollars in federal grants and may face further cuts, threatening its survival.
- The organization provides holistic and culturally competent legal representation to clients who are often undocumented, sex workers, or both.
- Gillum provides an example of a client named Isabella, a trans woman from Guatemala and victim of trafficking, to illustrate the complex cases AVP handles.
Johnny Gillum
5:07:21
Good afternoon, chair Salam and the members of the committee on public safety.
5:07:24
My name is Johnny Gillum.
5:07:25
I am a, paralegal at the New York City Anti Balance Project, AVP.
5:07:30
You heard from my colleague earlier, so I will try to just speak from the legal perspective, and avoid duplication.
5:07:36
My written testimony does go into considerably more detail than I'll be able to hear, and I encourage all of you to read it.
5:07:42
Now you folks don't need me to tell you that the LGBTQ community that we serve, which includes immigrants, black and brown folks, sex workers, and queer New Yorkers of all descriptions, is under direct legal attack from the federal government.
5:07:54
Small community organizations like ours are likewise targeted.
5:07:58
We at AVP have been defunded nearly half a million dollars in federal grants, and we expect to lose considerably more.
5:08:05
That's a lot
Martine N. Materasso
5:08:06
of money for a small
Johnny Gillum
5:08:06
organization like ours.
5:08:08
We don't know if we're gonna be able to survive from a budgetary perspective.
5:08:12
And so for this reason, we ask that the council increase funding to vulnerable league organizations like our own and also encourage Moctave to do the same.
5:08:19
We at AVP Legal represent clients at all levels of the criminal justice system.
5:08:24
Our clients are often undocumented or sex workers or both, and they tend to move between the traditional roles of victim and perpetrator within the criminal justice system.
5:08:32
We strive to provide those clients with holistic and culturally competent representation that other folks would not be able to.
5:08:38
We do crime victims advocacy, criminal defendant advocacy, immigration representation, etcetera.
5:08:43
To give you an example, I wanna briefly introduce Isabella who is a client of ours.
5:08:48
She's a trans woman from Guatemala, a victim of trafficking.
5:08:53
She is now subject to the racist and unconstitutional Lake and Riley Act.
5:08:57
So if she were picked up by ICE today, she would be summarily deported without any right to representation.
5:09:03
When we first started working with her, we were doing defense advocacy.
5:09:07
Then we moved into deportation defense, and we're now doing crime victims advocacy for her trying to get her out of her trafficking situation.
5:09:13
And we're working with city agencies to do that.
5:09:15
And that's just kind of a brief example of the really holistic presentation that we're able to provide.