Immigrant advocacy group launches project to protect Caribbean immigrants

NEW YORK, CMC – Immigrant advocacy group, Make the Road New York (MRNY), has launched its “Protect Our Futures” platform as part of an effort to pressure New York Governor Kathy Hochul and State legislators to take urgent actions to defend Caribbean and other immigrants and New Yorkers in the wake of a flurry of executive orders by United States President Donald J. Trump regarding his mass deportation agenda.

MRNY, which has over 28,000 members and operates five community centres, unveiled the platform in the wake of Trump’s inauguration.

In a statement, MRNY told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) that the legislative recommendations would protect communities from anti-immigrant attacks and provide “critical investments” for programmes that benefit all New Yorkers, including housing, healthcare, and education.

It said the “Protect Our Futures” is part of a state effort to pressure Hochul and legislators to “take urgent actions to pass critical legislation to protect all New Yorkers from the dangers of the federal agenda targeting immigrant and working-class communities.

“As the Trump administration ratchets up plans to weaponise the military to deport and tear apart families, eliminate constitutional protections, and put more money and power in the hands of billionaires, New Yorkers are ramping up the pressure on Albany (New York capital) elected officials to step up in their leadership and defend vulnerable communities from devastating federal policies,” MRNY said.

“Everyone, regardless of immigration status, zip code, race, origin, or gender identity, deserves the freedom to stay and the freedom to thrive in our state,” it added.

MRNY’s co-executive director, Jose Lopez, said the Trump administration’s actions aim to wreak havoc among communities and jeopardise the futures of the population.

“In the face of these threats, we demand Governor Hochul and Albany elected officials to step up as national leaders to pass common-sense policies. It is time to move past supportive rhetoric and deliver the concrete solutions that our people urgently need.”

The “Protect Our Futures” platform calls for the passage of key policy priorities such as systematise protections to prevent mass deportation; address affordability and ensure access to housing, health and essential services as well as invest in Our New York (IONY) package, support transgender communities and increase essential funding for key programmes.

“I lived through the first Trump administration, and having to live through another gives me immense anxiety that once again New Yorkers like me feel we have a target on our backs,” said MRNY member, Fabricio Astaiza.

“It is critical for New York State to take proactive measures to not only keep families together, and allow people to travel safely to school and work, but also fund our children’s education, ensure access to affordable and safe housing, expand healthcare access, make billionaires pay what they owe us, and provide a safety net for those immigrant and working-class families,” he said.

“We call on our elected officials to work with us to pass the effective policies that our communities need,” Astaiza added.

Lopez also decried the US House of Representative’s passage last Wednesday of the Laken Riley Act, describing it as an “extreme proposal that will separate immigrant families, undermine due process, and grant anti-immigrant states the power to shape federal law.

“The idea that someone should be detained, for simply being accused of a minor, non-violent crime, is an affront to the rights everyone has in this country,” he said.

“It is shameful, but not surprising, that President Trump and Republicans are moving this bill as their first attempt to remake the immigration system according to their nativist, xenophobic worldview.

“But for the Democrats who voted yes – especially those representing immigrant communities in New York – this vote is a cowardly submission to the politics of division and scapegoating.”

New York Attorney General Letitia James, together with California Attorney General Rob Bonta, has led a coalition of 11 attorneys’ general in responding to a memorandum from a Trump political appointee at the US Department of Justice regarding state and local involvement in federal immigration enforcement.

“It is well-established—through longstanding Supreme Court precedent—that the US Constitution prevents the federal government from commandeering states to enforce federal laws,” said the attorney’s general in a joint statement.

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