Hundreds gathered on the steps of the New York State capitol building Wednesday in Albany demanding justice for immigrant communities across the state, 12 days before President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, and as the 2025/26 legislative session began.
“Day One in Albany, and I have not seen enthusiasm like this in, I don’t know, six months,” said State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal at the Million Dollar Staircase of the Albany capitol. “It is so important that we stand here united as advocates and as legislators on behalf of the 53,000 New Yorkers who are subject to deportation by the Trump administration.”
New York State is home to nearly 700,000 undocumented immigrants, most of whom have lived there for over a decade. President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to launch the largest deportation operation in U.S. history, and plans to involve state and local law enforcement in his efforts, urging governments to assist in removing millions of immigrants. Last month, Trump’s pick for Border Czar, Tom Homan, met with Eric Adams in New York to discuss implementing this strategy.
Immigrant Defense Project, a nonprofit focused on the intersection of the criminal and immigration systems, organized the rally and the event along with other groups, including the Bronx Defenders, the Vera Institute of Justice, the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), and Alianza Agrícola.
Speaking before hundreds of community members, Linda Flor Brito, senior policy & campaigns organizer at the Immigrant Defense Project, reiterated the need to prepare. “Our communities and advocates have been sounding the alarm for what is coming, and we know the solution, and we have them here in hand with us before our legislature this session,” Flor Brito said.
Standing behind Flor Brito were hundreds of directly impacted community members, including advocates, allies and organizations representing immigrant rights, faith, labor, and criminal legal reform groups and more, who emphasized the urgency for the legislature and Governor Kathy Hochul to pass a set of bills enacting immigrant protections, including the New York for All Act, Dignity Not Detention Act; Access to Representation Act; and the Clemency Justice Act.
The New York Dignity Not Detention Act, S306 (Salazar) /A4354 (Reyes), if passed, would end contracts between the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency and county jails in New York. Assembly member Karines Reyes, who was present at the event, and State Senator Julia Salazar, introduced the bill in 2021. It has since stalled in the New York State Legislature. The other bills have also stalled in the legislature, but Wednesday’s rallygoers pushed for all four pieces of legislation to be passed as a matter of urgency.
The New York for All Act, S987 (Gounardes) / A5686 (Reyes), would restrict state and local officials from enforcing federal immigration laws, transferring individuals to ICE, or sharing sensitive information. It requires informing detainees of their rights before ICE interviews and bars ICE and CBP from non-public state properties without a judicial warrant, while limiting their access to state databases.
New York State Senator Andrew Gounardes was the sponsor of the New York for All legislation. “We are going to do everything we can that is humanly possible to protect New Yorkers,” he said to the crowd. “Whether you came here yesterday or you came here 100 years ago, as my grandfather did, this state is the state of opportunity for all.”
The Access to Representation Act, S999A / A170, establishes a right to universal representation, meaning anyone at risk of deportation who cannot afford a lawyer will be provided one.
State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, who sponsored the bill, noted his frustration with Trump’s recent cabinet pick of Tom Homan. “It is shameful that somebody named Tom Homan, who directed ICE, is now back as the Border Czar,” he said. “It is shameful that we are already seeing Trump rolling out his foreign policy.”
He emphasized the need to pass the bill, saying, “Statistics show that if an undocumented person is before a deportation hearing, they are 10 times more likely to lose if they don’t have a lawyer. And of course that makes sense, because in most cases, English isn’t their first language. In probably every case, they don’t understand immigration law.”
Speaking at the rally, Stanley “Jamel” Bellamy, NYC regional community organizer for the Release Aging People in Prison collective (RAPP), urged the New York State legislature to pass the Clemency Justice Act which aims to improve transparency and accessibility in New York’s clemency process, and helps keep families together. From 2017 to 2020, only 95 clemencies (i.e. fewer than 1.5% of over 6,400 clemency applications received by the Governor’s Office) were approved.
Bellamy was released from a New York State prison in April 2023, after serving 37.5 years of a 62.5-year life sentence, by way of clemency from New York’s Governor Kathy Hochul.
“I’m not an immigrant. I was born in this country, and these bills don’t affect me,” he said. “So why am I here? Because I know what it means to be marginalized, humanized and criminalized.” He added: “Clemency gave me the opportunity to come home to be with my family, to see my grandchildren, to see my 90 year old mother. This is what clemency does. […] If you’ve never been incarcerated, you do not understand what being in a detention center looks like. […] So I’m telling you, get this bill passed.”
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Sen. Salazar, the sponsor of the Dignity Not Detention Act, said it was “outrageous” that New York State continues to be complicit in immigration detention, in our federal government’s “deportation machine.” “It doesn’t need to be this way,” Salazar said. “New York should terminate contracts that correctional facilities have with federal immigration enforcement and stop being complicit in tearing families apart and discriminating against our neighbors.”
Assembly Member Marcela Mitaynes echoed Salazar’s speech, adding that New York State has a huge battle ahead. “I would be lying if I said that I didn’t feel fear myself the day after the election,” said Mitaynes, who has lived in the U.S. since she was 9 months old and is the first immigrant, indigenous Peruvian in the New York State Legislature.
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Many of those attending the rally at Capitol Hill were directly affected immigrants who heard of it through their friends and colleagues. They held up banners, shared their personal stories, and chanted for justice and the protection of human dignity and immigrant rights.
“As a black gay man from Nigeria, I have lived through a dehumanizing condition in ICE detention. When I came to the U.S., I was shackled and taken to detention. Even when I was sick, I was denied medical care. I was also left without mental health support,” said Uche Onwa, a Nigerian immigrant who fled his home country due to the repression and persecution he faced as a gay man, and who now serves as the national civic engagement coordinator for Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI). Onwa said every New Yorker must call on their legislators and show up to hearings telling them that New Yorkers will not stand back while “immigrants are treated as disposable.”
One community member at the event, Angel Reyes Rivas, shared his troubling experience with the U.S. immigration system. Back in 2009, Reyes Rivas’ mom was stopped by the police because she was driving without a license. They took her to the Nassau County Jail and as a result of communication between Nassau County Jail and ICE, his mom was deported to Peru.
“New York state cannot be reactive. We need to be proactive,” said Reyes Rivas, now the Long Island organizing coordinator for Make the Road NY. “We need to make sure that New York becomes a state that is an example to the nation on how to treat people, how to treat immigrants, and how to uphold human rights.”
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After 15 years, his mother is still in Peru, and he is now a parent of two children, a daughter who is five and a three year old son. “My wife, she’s undocumented, and you know, now with the promises of Nassau County Executive, I’m afraid to be separated from my family again. I know how it feels, and I don’t want my kids to go through the same thing.” As of today, the current county executive of Nassau County, Bruce Blakeman, has promised to collaborate with the incoming Trump administration and their mass deportation plan.
