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Iryna Plaskon, her husband Andriy, and their two young daughters were among the first of what is expected to be tens of thousands of displaced Ukrainians soon arriving in the U.S. The family is now staying in a basement Airbnb in Sunset Park. “You don’t know whether you’ll go back soon or if you’ll have to start a new life here,” said Iryna Plaskon of when she’ll return to Ukraine. The new arrivals “have no friends, they have no relatives, they have no money, they have no right to work,” said Yuliya Zolotarevsky, a member of Brooklyn’s Ukrainian community. Fellow New York Ukrainians have organized an ad hoc network of volunteers to provide a soft landing for the refugees, and are coordinating through the Facebook page “New York Communities for Ukrainian Refugees.” Gothamist
In other local immigration news…
Uber to Add NYC Taxis to its App
Uber has announced plans to list all New York City taxis on its app, a welcome development for yellow cabs which struggled to compete when ride-hailing apps proliferated in the industry. The development comes as Uber now faces its own driver shortage. Some New Yorkers will have access to the new feature this spring, before it becomes fully available in other places in the summer. The city’s roughly 14,000 cabbies will have the option of seeing what a trip will cost before they decide to accept it, and they will be paid on the same scale as Uber drivers when they accept rides through the app. New York Post
ICYMI: How Homeland Security Investigations works
📍Documented Original
Documented’s latest glossary resource takes a look into Homeland Security Investigations, the principal investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and a sub-component of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. HSI is in charge of investigating more than 400 U.S. laws, primarily relating to transnational crime. It is the second largest criminal investigative agency in the U.S. with more than 7,100 special agents and is responsible for investigating threats that affect “America’s travel, trade, financial and immigration systems.” Read more on Documented
