Guest Editorial: The "New York for All Act" deserves the support of all.

"This is not a partisan moment. It is a moral moment.” -- Corey Booker.

by Wendy Holtzman

Editor’s Note: The Croton Chronicle invites opinion pieces representing the broad diversity of viewpoints in our community. To discuss a possible submission, please get in touch with us at TheCrotonChronicle@gmail.com

The “New York for All Act” (S2235/A3506, Gounardes/Reyes) would prohibit New York’s state and local government agencies, including police and sheriffs, from colluding with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), disclosing sensitive information, or diverting personnel or other resources to further federal immigration enforcement.

We are living through a critical time in America where, in Senator Corey Booker‘s words, “This is not right or left. It is right or wrong. This is not a partisan moment. It is a moral moment.”

The New York for All Act represents just such a moral moment. Various earlier versions of the law were considered in legislative sessions for 2019-2020, 2021-2022, and 2023-2024. It did not pass. But we need it now more than ever. The good news is that the bill has broad support among New Yorkers. Last month, for example, a number of labor unions expressed their support for it, despite false arguments that immigrants take jobs away from U.S. citizen workers.

Our immigration system has been broken for a long time. The most recent comprehensive immigration reform bill was passed in 1986, and the consequences to vulnerable people’s lives have been far reaching.

During his presidential campaign, President Donald Trump promised to launch “the largest deportation program of criminals in the history of America.” Tragically, deporting criminals is not the main thing his administration is doing.  

According to TRAC Immigration, which analyzes federal data,  47,928 people were detained as of April 5; yet 22,239 of those detained have no criminal record.

I know that many assume that people don’t respond to statistics as strongly as they respond to personal stories. I disagree. Every one of those 22,239 individuals are family, friends, neighbors, coworkers; people who came to this country seeking basic security and a livelihood that they could not find in their home country.

It is cruel to detain and deport even one person with no criminal record without allowing them to plead their case. And even those who might have a criminal background deserve due process before they are deported, as a number of courts—including the U.S. Supreme Court itself—have ruled in recent weeks and months.

In some New York counties, a traffic stop for a DUI or traffic violation can land that person in an ICE jail. We have seen instances where students are imprisoned because this administration doesn’t like the political views they express.  As of early April, at least nine U.S. citizens, including children — two of whom have cancer—and 15 indigenous people have been detained for hours or even days by the federal government’s anti-immigrant operations. In some instances, individuals were detained despite showing identification demonstrating their citizenship status. It is indefensible to detain and deport people by haphazardly identifying them, often incorrectly. 

My heart also goes out to the Dreamers, undocumented immigrants who came to our country as children. In 2001, legislation was introduced in the U.S. Congress to give these young people legal status. To this day, Congress still hasn’t passed a law that provides them with a pathway to citizenship.

Approximately 28,000 DACA recipients in New York State only have temporary protection against deportation. The DACA program continues to be tied up in multiple courts. A hundred thousand residents who live in the state are either first-time DACA applicants or recipients whose renewals —which cost $555 —have lapsed. Since August 2022 these applications are still pending.

Because their status is at best in limbo, these adults face challenges regarding access to education, employment, career opportunities, and securing a mortgage — all resulting in financial instability.  Today the Dreamers, who have lived in America as long as they can remember, are also living in fear, faced with the threat of detention and deportation. It is wrong to detain and deport people who were brought to this country as children and have lived here for their whole lives.

ICE is kidnapping vulnerable people from their homes, places of work, schools, and local government buildings, usually without warrants and no due process. Their families don’t know where they are. Schools are asking parents to fill out a form stating who will be responsible for their children in case the parents are taken by ICE when their children are in school.

It is unconscionable to detain and deport people who have fled persecution, violence and poverty; people who during the course of years and often decades have established strong roots in our communities.

In 1987, President Reagan signed into law the largest amnesty in modern American history. Some 2.7 million people were approved for permanent residence. The least we New Yorkers can do for our immigrant communities is tell our state representatives to support The New York for All Act.

Wendy Holtzman is a Chronicle reader who lives in Peekskill. She is a retired NYC public elementary school teacher who is enjoying the time she now has for reading, art, and her grandchildren.

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