This summary was featured in Documented’s Early Arrival newsletter. You can subscribe to receive it in your inbox three times per week here.
The nonprofit Welcome Home Jersey City has so far helped nine Afghan refugee families find new homes in Jersey City and is preparing for more arrivals. The organization teamed up with the International Rescue Committee to resettle Afghans in the city. One Afghan refugee, who remained anonymous, used to work for the government in Afghanistan. In August he and his family were evacuated by the U.S. military. He then struggled to get his family settled with an apartment, schools, vaccinations and loads of paperwork. Welcome Home offered services to help refugees with these needs, with housing at the core of what they do. NJ.com
In other local immigration news…
Ossining Latino Parents Create Services To Help Families in Need
Hundreds of men, women and children waited in line for Ossining Padres Hispanos’ recent coat drive. According to organizers, most of those in line left South America during the pandemic and resettled in Ossining in the Hudson Valley, where nearly half of the community is Latino. Padres Hispanos began as a Facebook group to translate emails on school updates. Five years later, the group has close to 16,000 members and helps the Latino community to access resources and community news. Ana Guzman, founder and executive director of the organization, launched the Facebook page when she saw parents struggling to get updates on Ossining schools. She had a similar experience when she moved from Ecuador to the U.S. 33 years ago. lohud
Documented Talks: The State of Labor Law and the Construction Industry in New York
📍 Documented Original
Every year, the deaths of construction workers — most of them undocumented — often go unaccounted for. Since there is no registry of how many New York construction workers die, construction companies and developers commonly try to avoid accountability over workers’ deaths, bypass the state’s labor laws and face few consequences for the loss of a life at their construction sites. Documented held a discussion led by an investigative labor reporter and Documented contributor Maurizio Guerrero about how only a few companies are held accountable for these dangerous work conditions. Diana Florence, former Manhattan District Attorney candidate, 25 year prosecutor and creator of the Construction Fraud Task Force; Michael Jaffe, former president of NYSTLA and current Chair of its Labor Law Committee; and Manuel Castro, Executive Director of New Immigrant Community Empowerment spoke at the event. Read more at Documented.
