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Indigenous Guatemalan and Mexican food delivery workers in New York City are tired of the long hours and mistreatment they’re served by delivery apps. So in late November, they came together and expressed their needs for fair wages, bathroom access and shelter from the cold. These delivery workers, who are mainly immigrants, worked during the pandemic, helping to keep ailing restaurants afloat and delivering food to hospital employees and workers who could stay home. Sergo Arjche created a WhatsApp group chat, which has over 200 members, for delivery workers like him to share safe places in parks to wait for a delivery, and rumored or confirmed robberies, since they are concerned for their safety. The City
In other local immigration news…
ICE Detainee Escapes Essex County Prison
On Friday, Luis Cordon-Guzman, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainee, escaped from Essex County Correctional Facility in Newark. Cordon-Guzman was deported in April 2019, though it is uncertain when he came back to the U.S. According to ICE officials, he has various pending charges after his arrest by Trenton local police in March. Essex County and ICE signed a five-year agreement to allow for up to 1,250 detainees to be held within the county in 2011. In June, the Board of Essex County Freeholders passed a resolution demanding non-violent federal detainees with immigration violations to be released during the pandemic. North Jersey
Hunger Strike and Protests at Bergen County Jail Continue
Close to 100 individuals gathered with megaphones and signs to back ICE detainees at Bergen County Jail in Hackensack on Sunday. Some detainees are on a hunger strike to protest allegedly unsafe conditions within the prison, and are demanding their release amid the pandemic. On Sunday, protesters played drums and chanted for about 23 minutes, representing the 23 days of the immigrant detainees’ hunger strike. ICE officials say there were originally nine detainees on the hunger strike, but it decreased to four last week. Activist groups say the strikers’ health has led some of them to the hospital, though ICE has denied prior hospitalizations for the strikers. Patch
Trump Administration Lets Young Immigrants Apply to DACA
President Trump’s administration is once again allowing undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children to apply for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Brooklyn federal judge Nicholas Garaufis ordered the administration to resume accepting DACA applications on Friday, and by Monday night, the administration posted the change to a federal website. New York City has roughly 30,000 residents protected under DACA and another 45,000 that are eligible for it. Since 2017, only current DACA recipients have been able to renew their status while states and immigrant advocacy organizations sued to bring back the program. Gothamist
