In aftermath of Federal Executive Orders on Immigration, New York’s Immigrant Communities Need Services More Than Ever
Today, legal service providers and advocates came together at Foley Square to urge State and City elected leaders to provide the necessary funding in their respective budgets for immigration legal services.
Today 30+ organizations and dozens of students launched the College Opportunity and Resource Expansion (CORE) campaign to extend college affordability for all New York's students, increase rewards for current recipients, expand income thresholds and create a $50 million zero-interest student loan fund.
Today, Donald Trump signed a “Muslim Ban 2.0” executive order targeting travelers and immigrants from six Muslim-majority countries, including Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen (Iraq was removed from the original list). The new order, meant to avoid the legal challenges against the original executive order, excludes green-card holders and no longer permanently bars Syrian refugees.
On Monday, New York State Education Commissioner Elia and A.G. Schneiderman released joint guidance reminding districts across the State of their duty to uphold key protections for immigrant students. The guidance underscores that all students – regardless of their immigration status – have the right to attend school in the district where they reside and notes that schools should not ask about status.
Last night, President Trump gave his first major speech to a joint session of Congress. Despite rumors of support for legalization of undocumented immigrants, President Trump continued to scapegoat immigrant communities for America’s economic troubles, defend his discriminatory refugee and “backdoor” Muslim ban, and generalize immigrants as “criminals,” including the creation of a new office called Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement (VOICE). The President also suggested that he is in favor of replacing the country’s successful, longstanding commitment to a family-based immigration system with an untested new “merit-based” immigration system.
Today, on Valentine’s Day, hundreds of New Yorkers attended a rally planned by the New York Immigration Coalition to stand up for immigrant communities who are under attack by President Trump’s cruel and unjust executive orders, which have caused fear and anxiety about deportations, raids, and new immigration bans.
Following several days of growing national concern about increase ICE enforcement activity, the New York Immigration Coalition received information that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has officially arrested nearly 40 individuals in the greater New York area, as part of a targeted enforcement operation.
On Wednesday night, Senator Jeff Sessions was confirmed as the U.S Attorney General, adding him to President Trump’s cabinet and making him the top law enforcement officer and lawyer of the government. The 52-46 vote was mostly along party lines, with one Democrat joining Republicans in the affirmative vote to confirm the Senator.
In a unanimous decision on Thursday evening, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled to keep in place the temporary restraining order on President Trump’s executive order mandating an immigration travel ban on individuals from seven Muslim-majority countries.
Late last Friday, Washington federal judge James Robart issued a ruling suspending President Trump’s Executive Order that had halted the country’s refugee program and banned nearly all travel from seven Muslim-majority nations. On early Sunday morning, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Judge Robart’s ruling, and the nationwide lift of the ban remains in place, providing immediate relief to all those affected, even while the Trump Administration appeals the decision.
