This summary was featured in Documented’s Early Arrival newsletter. You can subscribe to receive it in your inbox three times per week here.
Before the pandemic, Isabel Galán worked at a dry cleaner and earned $350 a week, which she used to support her children and her mother in Mexico. Yet last March, as Galán’s job closed its doors. She has mainly earned money since then by doing odd jobs, earning just about $100 each week. According to the Fiscal Policy Institute, undocumented immigrant women like Galán were affected the most during the pandemic. Many of them had low-wage jobs in the service sector that closed during the pandemic, while some had to stay home with their children to help with virtual learning. About 35,000 undocumented women in New York City didn’t have enough food this past March. The New York Times
In other local immigration news…
City Council Candidates Share Immigration Plans
The race for the New York City Council’s 18th District seat, which covers a piece of the Bronx’s east side, has eight Democratic vying to replace Ruban Diaz Sr. Michael Beltzer, Amanda Farí, Darlee Jackson, Eliú Lara, William Moore, Mohammed Mujumder, Mirza Rashid and William Rivera are all running. Mujumder came to the U.S. from Bangladesh in the late 1980s, and is now the president of the Bangladeshi-American Community Council and managing director of Parkchester Tax Immigration and Legal Services. If elected, he plans to create a community center to provide information on government resources and programs for immigrants and citizens. City Limits
Meanwhile in Brooklyn, the race for the 45th City Council District, which covers the far east end of the borough, has a much smaller candidate pool. Three Democratic candidates, Anthony Beckford, Cyril Joseph and Louis Cespedes, are running against current councilmember Farah Louis. Cyril Joseph came from St. Lucia to New York in 1967. He has worked for Action for Better Community and founded the Togetherness with Love Community Center nonprofit, which provided immigration assistance. Joseph plans on creating “educational programs where lawyers and immigration experts help immigrants learn about their rights and create change.” Gotham Gazette
Menendez Helped New Jersey Man Return From India
Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) helped reunite Ashu Mahajan, a software solution architect on an H-1B visa, with his family after he was stranded in India for weeks due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Mahajan traveled to India last month to be with his father, who died of the virus. To return to New Jersey, he needed to receive a stamp on his paperwork from the U.S. Consulate in India, but it cancelled routine visa appointments amid the pandemic. Mahajan was told he couldn’t get an appointment until February 2022. Menendez’s office and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee were able to secure Mahajan an expedited appointment last week for his stamps. North Jersey
Documented Talks: “Immigration Matters,” Strategies for a Future Immigration System
📍 Documented Event
Documented and the NYC chapter of the Scholars Strategy Network will host a discussion Wednesday, June 9 at 4:30 p.m about two specific elements of the book “Immigration Matters: Movements, Visions, and Strategies for a Progressive Future,” by Ruth Milkman, Deepak Bhargava and Penny Lewis. The book outlines what a more open immigration system would look like. Felipe De La Hoz, an investigative and explanatory reporter focusing on U.S. immigration, will moderate the virtual event. The panelists include Amaha Kassa, founder and Executive Director of African Communities Together, Peter L. Markowitz, Professor of Law at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and the founding faculty member and co-director of its Kathryn O. Greenberg Immigration Justice Clinic, and Ruth Milkman, Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the CUNY Graduate Center and the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies.
Register here for the free Zoom event on Wednesday, June 9 at 4:30 p.m.
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