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Press conference puts human face on need for immigrants' rights legislation

n a somewhat startling but very affective move, four Councilmembers used the imminent release of a new Miramax film to promote two important legislative initiatives aimed at safeguarding he rights of immigrants in New York City. City Councilmembers Bill de Blasio, John Liu, Hiram Monserrate and Kendall Stewart, the Chair of the Subcommittee on Immigration, were joined by immigrants' rights advocates Chung Wha Hong, Advocacy Director of the New York Immigration Coalition, along with Andrew Friedman and Inocencia Nolasco from Make the Road by Walking. Also present was director Stephen Frears whose new movie, "Dirty Pretty Things," explores the difficulties and concerns of undocumented immigrants living in a large, Western city, including their fears of accessing government services at the risk of being deported.

The first piece of legislation is Monserrate's "Access Without Fear" bill that would prohibit city employees from releasing confidential information about an individual unless required by law. The second is Liu's "Equal Access" bill. It would require the City to make sure various social services are offered in languages in addition to English. Together these bills would ensure that immigrants could access necessary city services such as health care and law enforcement protections in a language they understand and without fear that their immigration status will be revealed to federal authorities.

Explaining the connection between the film and their legislative agenda, Bill de Blasio, Chair of the General Welfare Committee, stated, "It demonstrates in a way no hearing could the challenges immigrants face every day. The central plot concerns a person in a life and death situation forced to make a choice about whether to go to the police or not because if he does, it may jeopardize his ability to remain in the country. There is also a scene depicting something to be seen continually in social service offices, a young child having to translate in a crisis situation."

Just as the movie does so valuably, the press conference itself personalized the problems confronting immigrants, showing why it's so urgent that these bills be passed.

Council Member John Liu told of what he, himself, experienced growing up in Queens when his mother, a garment factory worker who immigrated here from Taiwan, would take his brothers and him to Department of Health clinics. "We were often treated as second-class citizens simply because my mom's English wasn't all that great," he said. "In this day and age, that is something no New Yorker should have to go through."

One of the highpoints of the event was the statement made by Inocencia Nolasco, a Spanish-speaking woman from the Dominican Republic who has lived in the United States for 13 years and will turn 62 in December. Speaking in her native language, she explained that after working for 10 years taking care of the elderly, she became too sick to work. After 5 months, all her savings were gone, but she was still not well enough to return to work.

She tried to apply for public assistance and Medicaid. From the first grueling day on, it was a nightmare. "I never got to talk to anyone who could speak to me in Spanish. They told me I had to sign letters in English that I could not understand," she said. "My family was suffering, but that did not matter because we were not citizens. I felt very desperate, and I could see that other immigrants in the welfare centers were experiencing the same problems."

Later, Council Member Monserrate was asked whether there's any evidence that city agencies turn over confidential information on people applying for city services. He replied, "We have a book of horror stories of people being deported. Some of the stories are truly chilling, including a mother who was concerned about reporting to the police that her child had been molested. Imagine what a mother feels having to make the choice about reporting this kind of heinous crime against her child because there's no one - not a Council Member or a lawyer - who can guarantee that when she enters a police station her information will not be turned over to the INS. If that, ladies and gentlemen, doesn't make the most compelling and logical argument that we must provide protection, I don't know what will."

Council Member Liu added that just 2 weeks before there was a particularly grisly murder in Chinatown and an immigrant came forward to help the police in their investigation. "Then we find out a few days later that he's going to be deported," Liu stated. "This has had a very chilling effect throughout the community. There have been burglaries where the victims have been afraid to report them. That is why we need to pass this confidentiality bill."

Council Member Kendall Stewart commented that the examples cited by his colleagues are to be found in the Caribbean community as well. He further stated, "We know of domestic workers who, just because they're undocumented, have been held hostage but are afraid to go to the authorities to report the crime. It's been happening for years. This will give them protection."

Stewart said, too, that American-born people can think that these kinds of things don't affect their own lives, but they do. "When immigrants are afraid to cooperate with law enforcement, it erodes the safety of every New Yorker. Though a person may not know it, anything that damages the civil rights and civil liberties of immigrants will, in the long run, damage their own."

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