Press Release

New York Metro Area Immigrant Rights Movement Declares Round Two

Joel Magallan, Asociación Tepeyac: (212) 633-7108 (w)
Shirley Lin, AALDEF: (212) 966-5932 x 213
Carolyn de Leon, CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities: (718) 220-7391 x11
Monami Maulik, DRUMDesis Rising Up & Moving: (718) 205-3036 (w)
Miguel Ramirez, Centro Hispano Cuzcatlán: (718) 704-6590 (m)
Walter Sinche, NYUIR: (347) 684-7340 (m)

In the face of recent anti-immigrant legislation passed by Congress, New York United for Immigrant Rights (NYUIR)—a coalition of more than 60 immigrant and human rights organizations in the New York metro area—will hold its final pre-march press conference tomorrow, Friday October 20. Community leaders will invite all New Yorkers to the Saturday, October 21st Rally and March to demand NO DEAL: FULL LEGALIZATION NOW! and to defeat the new wave of Sensenbrenner-backed attacks on immigrants.

Speakers will be available to provide testimony about the impacts of recent anti-immigrant policies on their communities in New York, Long Island, and New Jersey.

Press Conference Details

Date: Friday, October 20th
Time: 10:30 a.m. 11:30 a.m.
Where: Asociación Tepeyac, 251 West 14th St. (btw 7th and 8th Avenues)
Who: Directly affected community members, community leaders, and religious leaders calling on all New Yorkers to mobilize and march on Saturday, Oct. 21st

• Brother Joel Magallan, Asociación Tepeyac
• Aarti Shahani, Families for Freedom
• Radhamés Pérez, Acción Comunitaria Aurora
• Monami Maulik, Desis Rising Up & Moving
• Manuel Castro, Latin American Integration Center
• Carolyn de Leon, CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities
• Carlos Canales, Workplace Project, Long Island

On Saturday, Oct. 21st, the immigrant rights movement in New York will declare the beginning of Round Two of our communities response to Congress failure to propose and pass a full, fair, and humane legalization bill. Leaders, residents, and advocates will invite everyone in the New York metro area to join our campaign for human rights and the soul of American democracy.

October 21st Demands

1. Legalization Now. No half measures, no half-statuses, no guestworkers. Create more opportunities for current and future immigrants to enter and stay. Support fair policies that allow people to live in peace in their home countries.
2. Keep Families Together. Stop detaining and deporting the parents of US citizens, US veterans, and our community members. Clear immigration backlogs. Pass laws that acknowledge and protect ALL families as we define them.
3. Due Process and Civil Rights for All. End all detentions and deportations. Repeal mandatory detention and deportation. Give immigrants a fair day in court, in front of fair judges, with fair laws.
4. Equal Rights for All Workers. Repeal employer sanctions that lower wages for immigrants and low-income workers by making work illegal. Stop hurting workers, street vendors, and small, immigrant businesses through raids, penalties and restrictions on licensing. Grant equal pay for equal work and stop dividing citizen and immigrant workers by selling their work to the lowest bidder.
5. Defend Minority Voters Right to Vote. Stop all forms of disenfranchisement. Laws requiring birth certificates and proof of citizenship create unfair barriers to voting for all of our communities. Create fair and accessible laws for all of our communities to vote.
6. No More Discriminatory Immigration Policies. Stop all forms of selective enforcement. Stop targeting Black, LGBT, Muslim and HIV+ immigrants. Protect all of our civil rights.
7. Stop Profiting from Immigrants Suffering. Stop abusing and exploiting immigrant and citizen workers. Stop the profiteering from jails and detention centers.
8. Create Community Safety. Stop creating a climate of terror and fear by using local and state officials to enforce immigration laws in schools, the DMV, Department of Corrections, etc.
9. No More Deaths at the Border. No walls, No killing, No abusing families crossing the border or starving families once they cross.
10. Everyone Must Take a Stand. No more silence. Our religious leaders, our teachers, our neighbors, our unions must all stand up and fight with us. Make NYC a sanctuary for immigrants.

New York United for Immigrant Rights is composed of more than 60 organizations in the New York metropolitan area