Today, President Donald Trump signed executive orders during an appearance at Department of Homeland Security (DHS) directing the agency to expand the southern border wall, broaden aggressive interior enforcement targeting immigrants, increase Customs and Border Protection (CBP) staff by five thousand new officers, empower CBP to turn away asylum seekers, and end Federal funding to “sanctuary cities.

Yesterday, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary John Kelly signed two memorandums outlining the Department’s plan to implement President Trump’s executive orders on interior enforcement and border security. While some of the directives in the memos can be implemented immediately, others, such as the construction of a border wall and hiring additional immigration enforcement officers, will require additional funding from Congress.

At noon today, Donald Trump will be inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States of America. As a candidate, his campaign was centered on an anti-immigrant stance that called for the building of a “wall,” mass deportations, banning Muslim immigration, and “religious tests” for those looking to the United States as safe haven from war and persecution.

On Tuesday evening, Governor Cuomo unveiled the proposed FY 2018 Executive Budget.

The FY 2018 budget does the following:

Funding for New York State Office of New Americans remains at $6.4 million, with no increase in the budget, nor any outlined state resources for the Governor's announced “Immigrant Legal Defense Fund”;
Funding for Adult Literacy Education was reduced to $6.3 million, a million-dollar cut from last year’s enacted budget;
Language that defines how school funding is calculated and distributed amongst districts was revised significantly.

(Washington D.C and New York, NY) Today, immigrants, families, and allies rallied, marched, and held a mass community gathering in Washington D.C and nearly 50 locations nationwide. They met to build momentum to prevent deportations, preserve the DACA program and create sanctuaries of safety and deportation defense networks in cities, schools, churches and states.

Senator Chuck Schumer announced today that he is “not confident” that Senator Jeff Sessions can protect the rights of all Americans as Attorney General under President-Elect Donald Trump. Schumer specifically noted Sessions’ anti-immigrant record and lack of support for comprehensive immigration reform in his statement.

The U.S. Senate voted early this morning to approve a budget resolution that represents a major step in Republicans' efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Republicans have promised to continue toward a budget reconciliation bill that will gut the ACA before the end of January.

On Monday, January 10th, Governor Cuomo presented several proposals of his 2017 State of the State agenda, launching the “New York Promise” agenda to advance social justice and affirm New York’s progressive values.

Among the Governor’s proposals and executive orders that were announced include:

The launch of the “We Are All Immigrants” Initiative, included the “Empire State Immigrant Defense Project” that uses public-private partnerships to expand legal services for immigrants, an expansion of naturalization services offered by the state’s Office of New Americans, the Governor’s promise to advance the New York State DREAM Act to provide undocumented students with access to tuition assistance, and the launch of the “Blue Ribbon Panel on Immigrants” to assess the affectivity of state services and resources that support immigrant integration.

Today, Governor Cuomo unveiled the first proposal from his 2017 agenda, a plan to make college tuition-free for New York’s working families at all SUNY and CUNY two- and four-year colleges. The Governor’s office announced that the tuition-free college degree program, called the “Excelsior Scholarship,” will be eligible to individuals making up to $125,000 per year.

After casting their 29 electoral college votes for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton earlier today, the members of the New York Electoral College, including President Bill Clinton and City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, made another profound statement in support of immigrant New York.