Caribbean American Democratic Congresswoman Yvette D Clarke has reiterated her call for comprehensive immigration reform, as immigration advocates intensify calls for solving the migration crisis in the United States that involves Caribbean and other illegal migrants and refugees.
“As a daughter of immigrants, it is not lost upon me the multitude of hardships and difficulties families experience when they come to this nation in hopes of finding the American Dream. Unfortunately, our immigration system, which has not been updated in 30 years, is broken,” Clarke, the daughter of Jamaican immigrants, told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) on Friday.
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“At the same time, extremist MAGA Republicans are fighting tooth and nail to break it even further with H.R. 2, their Child Deportation Act,” added the representative for the 9th Congressional District in Brooklyn, New York. “This cruel legislation would force draconian restrictions and punishments on migrants and asylum seekers and set America’s immigration priorities back years. Any bill that would allow vulnerable migrant children to be inhumanely detained by Border Patrol for up to a month is an unacceptable solution.”
As chair of the Immigration Task Force in the US House of Representatives, Clarke said she has seen “the glaring inequities, blatant racism, vicious xenophobia, and civil rights violations immigrants face – particularly in immigrant communities of African descent.
“Immigrants of color experience immigration inequities more than any other community and immigrants of European origin,” she said. “But let me very clear, immigrants—regardless of status—contribute billions every year in taxes and to the American economy. That’s why we need a concrete vision, equipped with compassion and equity, for comprehensive immigration reform.”
In response to Mayor Adams’s executive order to temporarily suspend New York City’s right-to-shelter protections, Natalia Aristizabal Betancur, deputy director of Make the Road New York, an immigration advocacy group, said it was “simply outrageous for Mayor Adams to flout the law and try to suspend right-to-shelter protections that have been fundamental to New York City housing laws for decades.
“Everyone, regardless of immigration status, deserves a safe roof over their heads,” she said.
“The City has a moral obligation to do the right thing and step up to provide support—not put New Yorkers, including recently arrived people, at grave risk.
“We urge the Adams administration to reverse course immediately and work to provide real, appropriate, and safe solutions,” Betancur added. “We and our allies have articulated multiple alternative steps–like expanding access to CityFHEPs vouchers to all people regardless of immigration status and eliminating the 90-day rule for eligibility – that Mayor Adams should take to address the current situation and help all New Yorkers, including asylum seekers, move into permanent housing. It’s time for him to listen and act on those policy recommendations.”
On Thursday, the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC), an umbrella policy and advocacy organization that represents over 200 immigrant and refugee rights groups throughout New York, rallied, on the steps of City Hall in lower Manhattan, with elected officials, Hudson Valley-serving nonprofit organizations and immigrant New Yorkers, urging the Biden and Adams’ administrations to step up efforts to address the crisis.
“The Adams administration needs to evolve its response from an emergency footing to a permanent one, and start investing in an infrastructure – which includes coordination with local municipalities and community-based organizations – to move people from NYC’s shelters to permanent housing using vouchers, as well as increase funding to meet legal and social services needs,” said Murad Awawdeh, NYIC’s executive director. “This will ensure that asylum seekers, and all New Yorkers, are better able to integrate and build their lives here.”
Late last week, Adams announced a new program to provide up to four months of temporary sheltering in nearby New York counties, outside of New York City, to single-adult men seeking asylum who are already in the city’s care.
Many of the asylum seekers are nationals of Cuba, Haiti, and Venezuela.
In his announcement, Adams said the program will launch with two hotels located in Orange Lake and Orangeburg counties, with the potential to expand, and will provide asylum seekers with shelter for up to four months as well as the same city-funded services available at Humanitarian Emergency Relief and Response Centers.
The mayor said staff at participating hotels will also connect asylum seekers with community-based organizations and faith groups to support their transition to a new city.
With the number of asylum seekers arriving in New York City rapidly accelerating ahead of Title 42’s lifting on Thursday, and what is expected to be an even larger influx after that day, Adams said the hotels in Orange Lake and Orangeburg will “free up” additional space in New York City for the hundreds of asylum seekers continuing to arrive in the five boroughs every day.
Since last spring, the mayor said over 60,800 asylum seekers have come through New York City and been offered a place to stay, adding that over 37,500 asylum seekers are currently in the city’s care. CMC
