By Isseu Diouf Campbell
Mayor Bill de Blasio met with members of the ethnic media in a recent roundtable at City Hall to reassure concerned immigrant New-Yorkers following the election of a new president that New York City will remain the sanctuary city it has always been.
“In light of the election results what I have made very clear is that our New York values are not changing and the policies of this city government are not changing,” de Blasio said. “We are proud of being the ultimate city of immigrants. And a single election does not change that in the least.”
Even though Mayor de Blasio recognizes the power of the federal government, he wants immigrants New Yorkers to know that their city has more influence in their day-to-day lives that they think.
“I’m not belittling the effect of a national election. I’m saying they are two very different things,” de Blasio said. “But it is crucial that people understand how much of the decisions that affect them are made at the local level.”
For victims of immigration fraud or hate crime, the mayor insists that they should come forward.
“If we don’t know about it, we can’t stop it,” de Blasio said. “So it’s so important to tell people to report. And it is of course confidential, as it would be by the way for anybody, anytime, in anything involving a crime.”
Chair Carmelyn Malalis, added that the Commission on Human Rights could also help.
“For folks who are being discriminated or harassed in their communities, they can always call and contact the Human Rights Commission. They can call 311, and ask for Human Rights. They can also call 718-722-3131.
To the undocumented immigrant New Yorkers who applied for the recent IDNYC card, an initiative led by Commissioner of immigrant Affairs, Nisha Agarwal, Mayor Bill de Blasio assured:
“The law is clear. We’re not going to let the documentation fall in the hands of the federal government.”
Similarly, recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals who came out of the shadows and were allowed to remain in the US without fear of deportation are since the election of a new president anxious about their future. During a recent a meeting with the new president, Mayor de Blasio pleaded for their case.
“The children who came here when they were one year old, four years old, seven years old – they didn’t make that choice and they should be treated with special consideration so I made the argument to him (Donald Trump). “
“I also said to him what a lot of people said”, de Blasio added. “Are you really going to take a young person who’s never known life in Mexico or El Salvador or you name the country and send him back to a place they have no relationship to anymore?”
Although immigration policies are decided on the federal level, Mayor de Blasio is reassuring immigrant New-Yorkers.
“We are not going to participate in tracking down DACA applicants, and we’re going to protect them in every way we can,” Mayor de Blasio said. “Over the last decades in New York City, we have adhered to a policy of our police not being immigration agents, and not turning over people to immigration authorities.”
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