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About 25,000 immigrant New Yorkers with temporary legal status could receive permanent residency and a path to citizenship under the immigration plan President Joe Biden proposed on Inauguration Day. But amid the bill’s uncertainty, those with Temporary Protected Status, many of whom are essential workers, are reminded of unfilled promises from the past. TPS holders expressed their optimism for Biden’s plan after five presidential administrations did not give them a path to citizenship. As Ang Dawa, a 63-year-old private driver from Nepal. put it, “We have lived here, paid taxes here, and raised our family here and the Biden administration’s pathway to citizenship would finally allow us to imagine a long-term future here.” The City
In other local immigration news…
孰真孰假？对特朗普关于移民的言论的事实核查
New York Lawmakers Pay Surprise Visit to Orange County Correctional Facility
📍 Documented Original
State Sen. Jessica Ramos from Queens and Assemblymember Karines Reyes from the Bronx visited Orange County Correctional Facility on Thursday to check on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees. They aimed to encourage COVID-19 vaccine distribution at the facility and push for the New York for All Act, which would prohibit local law enforcement cooperation with ICE. Ramos and Reyes said they were escorted by friendly staff members and saw every aspect of the facility, which they referred to as clean and bright. But Ramos and Reyes learned detainees and staff are not getting tested regularly for COVID-19 and only a few staff received the vaccine. Read more at Documented
Board of Immigration Appeals Can Be Released, Court Rules
A court ruled Friday that the New York Legal Assistance Group, which helps low-income clients in immigration proceedings, can continue with its suit seeking access to non-precedential opinions of the Board of Immigration Appeals. The group wanted access to all “unpublished opinions” issued by BIA since 1996. But a district court dismissed the suit because the Freedom of Information Act’s remedial provision lets courts order agencies to give documents to the complainant but not to the public. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed that ruling, but more aspects of the case remain undecided. Bloomberg Law
300 Haitians Deported Since Feb. 1
The New York Immigration Coalition and Brooklyn-based Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees said that since Feb. 1, ICE has deported about 300 Haitians. “Another shameful 1,800 deportations” will happen in the next two weeks, the group said. Ninja Rauoul, executive director of Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees, said the group is “outraged by the discriminatory deportations that continue to be carried out by ICE amid a global pandemic, a serious political crisis in Haiti, and a surge in kidnapping terrorism by government-backed gangs.” The mass deportation occurred even after Temporary Protected Status was extended for Haitians until Oct. 4, 2021. Jamaica Observer
