Pass the New York for All Act to protect residents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and deportation

One early morning as he drove to work at a dairy in Livingston County, a rural area outside of Rochester, Javier was pulled over by the police. As far as he could tell, he’d done nothing wrong, he just looked Latino. He couldn’t understand what the police were telling him and they didn’t charge him with a crime. They simply detained him and then turned him over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

A few weeks later he was deported to Mexico. He had spent 15 years working in the U.S. He was married and the father of two U.S.-born children. Despite his deep connections to Livingston County, he was suddenly deported and ripped from his family and community.

Sadly, stories like this are extremely common.

As immigrant New Yorkers, we want to be able to engage with local law enforcement agencies in our areas without worrying that those interactions will result in us having our information shared, or worse, being handed over to ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). But the reality is that today, across the state of New York, these interactions — especially with local police — can be terrifying for our communities, not knowing if they will land us in a pipeline to deportation.

In New York City, we have local legislation that provides critical protection from ICE collusion but there are exceptions in the law and ongoing violations of them by local officers. So the worry is always there even in our so-called sanctuary city. You can see the impact it has on immigrant construction workers who are often afraid to speak up about unsafe conditions at building sites with deadly results.

For farmworkers and other workers in upstate New York, where local agency collusion with ICE has funneled so many people like Javier into deportation, the fear of arrest and detention is constant. Even though New York passed the Driver’s License Access and Privacy Act in 2019, which enables people to get a license regardless of immigration status, many workers are afraid to drive in Upstate New York.

Employers exploit immigrant workers’ fear of deportation to discourage their organizing efforts in their workplaces. This happens in many industries, not just construction and agriculture. When immigrant workers can’t organize for their rights, it makes it harder for all workers to organize to raise wages and improve working conditions in all parts of the state.

That’s why we urgently need the state Senate and Assembly to pass the New York for All Act — a popular bill that would prohibit local and state agencies from funneling people into ICE and CBP custody, sharing sensitive information, and using local resources to undertake a federal political agenda.

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Dozens of labor unions and worker justice organizations around the state support this bill because they know that immigrant workers are part of the fabric of our communities, our workplaces, our businesses, and our economy. The racism and targeting of Black workers and others workers of color in both the criminal legal and immigration systems puts us at great risk. We need this bill to ensure that all workers — regardless of immigration status — can all live and work with dignity and respect.

The New York for All Act will end the terror so many immigrants feel every day: that normal tasks like driving to work, taking the kids to school or visiting a public hospital could put them in the deportation pipeline. It will also enable the millions of immigrant workers in our state to better participate in their communities and provide for their families without fear that standing up for themselves on the job could lead to arrest and deportation.

This bill is good for workers, good for businesses, and good for the economy as a whole: counties that don’t assist federal immigration enforcement have lower unemployment rates, lower poverty rates and higher median household annual incomes.

Now is the time for New York to join states like California, Colorado, Illinois, Oregon and Washington that have already passed similar legislation to protect their residents.

We urge the many legislators who have fought back against the demonization of immigrants and fought to protect New Yorkers’ vital workers rights to pass this bill now and for Gov. Hochul to sign it into law.

Immigrant New Yorkers who want to continue to live, work and take care of our families, secure in the knowledge that we are seen, we are respected and we are here to stay.

González lives on Staten Island and is a member of Laborers Local 79 and organizer for the union. Jiménez is a dairy worker in Livingston County and one of the leaders of Alianza Agrícola.