Good afternoon, and thank you to the members of the Council for convening this hearing and to Chairman Dromm for his continued leadership for immigrant communities.

We, the undersigned, write to urge the creation of a bureau or division within the Queens County District Attorney’s office dedicated to protecting Queens’ immigrant communities by, amongst other things, investigating and prosecuting those unscrupulous individuals who defraud immigrants not only of money, but also potential eligibility for immigration relief.

1. Win Equal Access to Education: Provide undocumented immigrant students access to state tuition assistance (TAP).

Thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today. The New York Immigration Coalition is an umbrella advocacy organization that represents nearly 200 members and partners.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today. The New York Immigration Coalition is an umbrella advocacy organization that represents nearly 200 members and partners.

All links to the guides below are in English and the secondary language indicated on the guide.

My name is Jackie Vimo, and I am Director of Advocacy at the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC), an umbrella organization for over 150 groups across New York State that work with immigrants.

Good Morning. My name is Steve Choi and I am the executive director of the New York
Immigration Coalition, an umbrella policy and advocacy organization that works statewide with
nearly 200 immigrant-serving member organizations.

At least one in four students in our schools was not proficient in English upon entering the New York City school system, and currently there are nearly 160,000 ELLs in the City’s public school system overall, or more than 14% of the total school population.