UNITED STATES-POLITICS-Immigration advocates no mention of Caribbean immigrants in Governor’s speech

NEW YORK, The New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC) condemned New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s State of the State Address on Tuesday, saying that she failed to include Caribbean and other New immigrant New York Yorkers in her vision for New York in 2023.

“Today, Governor Hochul failed to present a bold and ambitious plan for New York that substantially improves the lives of immigrant New Yorkers and recognizes the challenges we face,” NYIC Executive Director Murad Awawdeh told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC). The NYIC is an umbrella organization of over 200 immigration advocacy and policy groups in New York State.

“While we are grateful for Governor Hochul’s commitments to some key programs, they are far from enough to ensure that all immigrant New Yorkers, including the over 30,000 newly arrived asylum seekers, have the support they need to integrate and thrive in New York State.”

Many of the asylum seekers include Haitians, Cubans, and Venezuelans.

“Without a full US$100 million investment in the Access to Representation Act and immigration legal services, funding our families remain at risk of being cruelly separated,” Awawdeh said.

“Moreover, the lack of investment in health coverage for all New Yorkers, regardless of legal status, is no small oversight in light of the ongoing pandemic and the contributions of our communities to keeping New York open for business.

“Governor Hochul must further commit to supporting the passage and signing the New York for All Act so that our immigrant communities are no longer terrorized by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency) and Border Patrol, and expanding Language Access further, so all New Yorkers can access services in a language they comprehend.”

Awawdeh said Governor Hochul could not provide for some New Yorkers while leaving others out of the New York Dream she described in her address.

“Immigrants have always been the engine that fuels New York’s economy, and now, we need Govorner Hochul to recognize that fact and build a state that works for all of us regardless of our legal status or wealth,” he said.

The Coverage for All coalition, a New York-based non-profit group, said it was “deeply disappointed by the Governor’s failure to address the exclusion of hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers from health coverage because of their immigration status.

“After three years of a global pandemic that hit immigrant communities so hard, it must be lost on no one that every New Yorker needs access to health coverage and care,” said the group.

“The governor must adjust her priorities and support passing Coverage for All legislation to expand coverage and care, regardless of immigration status, as part of this year’s budget.”

Make the Road New York co-executive director Theo Oshiro said the Governor’s speech “fell far short of what’s needed for immigrants, communities of color, and working families across the state.

“While paying lip service to tackle the genuine affordability crisis that New Yorkers face, the Governor again failed to mention and support crucial measures for which our communities have been clamoring.

“As it relates to the current budget process, we are particularly concerned that she ignored the need to pass reasonable cause protections for tenants, full inclusion of excluded workers in unemployment, the inclusion of immigrants in health coverage, and raising taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers to invest in our New York.

“Our communities have been on the front lines of the pandemic for the past three years and bear the brunt of the affordability crisis that the Hochul administration claims to want to tackle,” Oshiro added.

Many elected officials and community activists expressed mixed reactions to Hochul’s State of the State address in which she outlined vital components to make a more affordable, more liveable, and safer New York.

The “Achieving the New York Dream” Agenda includes 147 bold initiatives.

They include the “New York Housing Compact” strategy to address New York’s housing crisis, build 800,000 new homes over the next decade, transformational plan to strengthen mental health care, increase capacity for inpatient psychiatric treatment by 1,000 beds and add 3,500 housing units serving individuals with mental illness; and significant public safety initiatives and investments to drive down the gun and violent crime.

New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams said as the cost of living continues to rise for New Yorkers, immediate and long-term affordability for working families across the city and state is a strong focus.

“We’ve fought to raise the minimum wage for over a decade, and both increasing and indexing it to inflation is crucial, as is using the reach and resources of state government to provide relief, security, and economic opportunity.

“Nowhere is this clearer than the single largest expense for New Yorkers – housing,” added the son of Grenadian immigrants. “Many of the Governor’s proposals were encouraging, including setting new targets for creating hundreds of thousands of units and making it easier to create that housing state-wide.

“As I argued before the speech, making these new homes income-targeted is just as important, if not more so. If the government is taking steps to encourage responsible development, whether through subsidizing or streamlining, that support should only come in exchange for deeply affordable housing,” Williams added.