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Some immigrants have expressed concerns about attending protests over the killing of George Floyd due to fearing possible immigration consequences.
Members of La Colmena, a nonprofit based on Staten Island that works with Latino and immigrant workers, told Bedford + Bowery that they wanted to attend to protests to show support for people facing police brutality. They hung up banners that read “Black Lives Matter,” “Trans Lives Matter,” “No Human Being is Illegal,” and “No Muslim Ban.”
But reports that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are also policing the protests have struck fear in many immigrants, who are concerned they might get arrested and face deportation. The New York City Police Department has arrested over 2,000 people in connection with the protests that have consumed the city over the past few weeks. Some undocumented protestors in Phoenix are currently facing deportation.
It all leaves La Colmena’s members, some of whom are undocumented and black, with a tough decision to make. Bedford + Bowery
In other New York immigration news…
Corona Continues to Feel Consequences of Pandemic
Corona, Queens, was hit especially hard by the coronavirus outbreak, with the highest number of coronavirus deaths, 392, and cases, 4,014, of any New York neighborhood. But while the first wave of the virus seems to be subsiding, the economic and health consequences are still being felt in the heavily immigrant neighborhood. Long lines remain at testing sites in the area as well as at food banks. As Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) described it, COVID-19 “poured gasoline” on the many problems that already existed in the neighborhood before the pandemic. The Guardian
Essex County Calls on ICE to Release Inmates
Essex County Freeholder President Brendan Gill approved a resolution on Thursday that demanded ICE release all detainees currently held in Essex County prisons. The Essex County Correctional Facility has a contract with ICE to hold immigrant detainees. Across the country, inmates and immigrant detainees have faced overwhelming COVID-19 cases, with many calling to be released so their incarceration does not become a death sentence. Judges have ordered the release of several immunocompromised immigrant detainees, and have cited the freeholder board’s resolution in deciding that immigrants with non-violent criminal arrests should not be deported. TAPinto.net
