NY For All would limit disclosure of immigration status

Advocates and some Democratic lawmakers are pushing for a bill that would prohibit local law enforcement and other officials from questioning individuals about their citizenship or immigration status, as well as sharing information about a person’s immigration status with federal law enforcement officials, except in certain circumstances.

Murad Awawdeh, President and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition, said: Spectrum News 1 The New York For All Act would help immigrants, regardless of status, who he says are in a difficult position because of the U.S. immigration system.

He argued that as the lack of reform makes it increasingly difficult for immigrants to obtain status, individuals fear, he said, any contact with local law enforcement, which advocates say , puts them in danger.

“At the end of the day, this is a public safety bill,” he said.

The bill would prohibit police officers, peace officers, school resource officers, among other agencies, from questioning individuals about their immigration status as well as other disclosure regulations and prevent enforcement activities federal enforcement on state and local non-public property without a judicial warrant.

“We haven’t seen any meaningful immigration reform in almost three decades,” he said. “Immigrant New Yorkers fear that living their lives out in the open and interacting with the government, whether it’s a traffic stop or their children’s attendance at school, could lead to them being torn away from their family. »

The bill has faced stiff opposition from Republican lawmakers, like Sen. Patrick Gallivan, who says if law enforcement realizes someone is breaking the law, they should report them .

“If it’s a state law, obviously it’s up to them to enforce it, but if it’s a federal law, I think our law enforcement has the “obligation to contact their partners in the federal government and pass on this information,” he said. law enforcement at all levels for living and working in silos after 9/11 and this has left our country and our citizens vulnerable.

Awawdeh responded by clarifying that the bill does not eliminate collaboration between agencies, it only galvanizes the threshold at which this collaboration can take place.

“If federal support is requested from local law enforcement, it should be based on a judicial mandate and not simply a request to do so,” he said.