Politicians may be hurling insults at the undocumented immigrant population on the presidential campaign trail, but New York City officials are taking a very different approach. There, city leaders are having face-to-face meetings with these people in an effort to build trust and help them receive legal services.
The effort is being shared through Cities for Action, a coalition of more tha 100 mayors and municipalities leading the effort to advance immigration reform and welcome new immigrants.
On Wednesday, the coalition held a webinar on New York City’s initiative — known as ActionNYC — to discuss how other cities can organize to better serve the needs of their immigrant populations and prepare a longer term infrastructure for delivering them legal services.
“Cities are adept at dealing with the local political landscape, and Mayors are on the front lines advocating for programs that support immigrant communities,” Nisha Agarwal, commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs (MOIA), told ThinkProgress. “It’s important that cities and municipal governments invest in creating a long-lasting and solid infrastructure for delivering quality immigration legal services regardless of federal programs.”
Officials are also particularly hoping to educate immigrants about initiatives like the presidential executive action known as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and its sister proposal known as the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA) that would remove the threat of deportation for certain undocumented immigrants. The latter initiative has been blocked from moving forward by a group of GOP-led states, which sued the Obama administration. These policies are now facing a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which may hear the case as early as Thursday.
Everything You Need To Know About The Supreme Court Challenge To Obama’s Immigration PoliciesJustice by CREDIT: AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais Brownsville, Texas, is nowhere near the state capital in Austin…thinkprogress.orgRegardless of the outcome of the looming SCOTUS decision, New York City officials have already begun to help immigrants apply for other immigration paths that may be available to them through the ActionNYC program, which was implemented six months ago. Through that $7.9 million initiative, officials have partnered with community centers where immigrants can receive legal information and get help with preparing their immigration documents. They’re also helping immigrants to gather the documents needed if there is nationwide action on immigration.
Most notably, officials are embedding themselves in New York City’s five boroughs to hold meetings with immigrant communities in the languages that they speak.
“As a result of their efforts, we have done several events with Korean churches, Chinese CBOs [community-based organizations], South Asian CBOs, South Asian Mosques, and we continue to look for ways to engage and build up trust within these communities to encourage them to access the many immigrant friendly and focused programs NYC has to offer,” Agarwal said. “Further, MOIA holds regular ethnic and community media roundtables in order to inform immigrant communities about services and programs through the media outlets that they trust.”
ActionNYC has reached more than 19,000 New Yorkers through these targeted outreach efforts. The program’s community partners have helped immigrants enroll in the Medicaid program, linked DACA-eligible individuals with education and workplace programs, and connected immigrants to social services to help them apply for the municipal ID known as IDNYC.
It’s making a difference. More than 800,000 people, including both undocumented immigrants and U.S. citizens, have received IDNYC cards. Cardholders can use their IDNYC as a primary form of identification to open a bank account at 12 financial institutions, file their taxes, and other purposes. Given that an estimated 500,000 undocumented population live in New York City, the move by officials to embrace undocumented immigrants is smart economics. Higher wages for the undocumented population help to stimulate economic growth, which translates into more tax revenue, according to a Center for American Progress report. Allowing the stalled DACA and DAPA initiatives to move forward could also mean an additional $230 billion to the nation’s gross domestic product, or GDP, over a decade and an additional $805 million in state and local tax revenue collected each year.