Campaign News

Gotham Gazette - November 24, 2014, by Samar Khurshid - At a hearing Monday, the New York City Council's Committee on Governmental Operations approved the latest drafts of two bills that enhance the responsibility of city agencies to conduct voter registration and a resolution calling for the State Legislature to pass similar legislation.

These measures are an attempt by the Council to improve the compliance of City agencies with Local Law 29, also known as the Pro-Voter Law, which was passed in 2000. The law requires 19 city agencies to handle voter registration applications for customers.

The new legislation is headed to the full Council for a vote on Tuesday and then, if passed as expected, to the desk of Mayor Bill de Blasio. The bills expand the mandate of the Pro-Voter law to seven additional agencies and create a standard for enforcing the law, including required semi-annual reports from participating agencies. Implementation of the existing law has proven to be a problem, with city agencies failing to uphold their responsibilities to offer registration forms to New Yorkers doing other business with the City.

The accompanying resolution calls upon the State Legislature to augment existing agency-assisted registration laws to include codes on registration forms that would help track agency performance and registration statistics.

Council Member Ben Kallos, chair of what he called the "good government committee," introduced Intro 493 A which expands scope of the Pro-Voter law and sets a deadline of December 1, 2015 for agencies to integrate their forms with voter registration.

The second bill, Intro 356 A, which establishes reporting requirements for the agencies, and the accompanying resolution, were introduced by Council Member Jumaane Williams.

"The last election was abysmal," Williams said of voter turnout in response to questions from Gotham Gazette. Stating that the city and state are falling behind in civic participation, he said, "This should be an issue that all parties - Republicans, Democrats, third parties - every party should be working to increase participation."

The push for increased voter registration began in July with Mayor de Blasio's Directive 1, which ordered agencies under the Pro-Voter law mandate to create plans for implementing the law. Then, in October, the City Council introduced the two new bills in response to a report released by a coalition of good government groups which showed the City's lax compliance with Local Law 29.

According to the report, 84 percent of clients at 14 of these agencies were not provided registration applications when they should have been. Additionally, only 2 out of 5 applicants with limited English proficiency were given translated applications, and agents were not trained in the application process.The report was compiled by the Pro-Voter Law Coalition, comprised of the Center for Popular Democracy (CPD), the Brennan Center for Justice at the NYU School of Law, Citizens Union of the City of New York, and the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG). Their investigation was aided by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund.

The report's importance is highlighted by the fact that over 30 percent of New Yorkers who were interviewed at the agencies were not registered to vote.

The de Blasio administration initially rejected the two bills over privacy concerns and on the grounds that they came too close on the heels of Directive 1 and wishing to see agencies given more time to comply. Taking those concerns into consideration, changes were made to Williams' bill on reporting mandates. Williams disagreed with the administration but eventually came around to ensure changes were made in the proposal which will protect applicants' information while still allowing the Board of Elections to track registration data from agencies.

"I'm expecting (the) resolution to have a serious impact in Albany," said Council Member Kallos to Gotham Gazette. "Whether it's the Assembly or the Senate, we can all agree that government works better when we measure what its doing and this will take a step towards that."

Representatives of the good government groups that authored the report also testified at the hearing. Steven Carbo, director of Voting Rights and Democracy Initiatives at CPD praised the proposals, asserting, "Likely hundreds of thousands, if not millions of eligible voters were never given the opportunity to register to vote over the years, perpetuating regrettably low rates of voter registration in New York particularly among lower income, of color and immigrant citizens," he said.

Peggy Farber, legislative counsel for Citizens Union, called the proposals "meaningful steps to improve the pro-voter law, to codify the important work of the administration."

On Tuesday, the bills and the resolution will head to the full Council for a vote at the Stated Meeting, where they are very likely to pass.

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Polish Daily News - November 7, 2013 - Contrary to the defendants under the criminal justice system, people in immigration detention have no right to a lawyer from the office. As part of the New York Immigrant Family Unity Project about 190 immigrants in detention facing deportation, you can seek legal help.

New York immigrate Family Unity Project (NYIFUP) is an initiative that emerged from seven years of research and interviews with immigration lawyers and defenders of the rights of immigrants. They gave their opinions that the lack of a competent legal representation for many New York immigrants, unfamiliar with the law, do not have money for lawyers and having problems with the language, is unnecessary deportations, which lead to the separation of families and are an unnecessary financial ballast to the government.

Last summer, the New York city council has allocated 500 000 dollars. to fund a pilot program, whose task was to test the reasonableness of the initiative. The draft law school joined them. Benjamin N. Cardozo, and several organizations fighting for immigrant rights, and so created a program of assistance to 190 immigrants.

"It is a matter of justice - says Peter L. Markowitz, a professor at Cardozo Law School. - This is an opportunity to initiate changes in the way immigrants are treated in our country."

In the future, originator NYIFUP plan to organize legal assistance for all poor immigrants awaiting deportation in immigration detention: in New York, Batavia, NY, Newark and Elizabeth, New Jersey. Annually, these centers gets about 2,450 immigrants.

The full annual cost of the program is estimated at 7.4 million dollars. His supporters argue that reducing the time that immigrants spend in detention centers, and limit the number of deportations will bring savings of 5.9 million per year.

New York Immigrat Family Unity Project (NYIFUP) to inicjatywa, która wyłoniła się siedem lat temu z badań i rozmów z prawnikami imigracyjnymi oraz obrońcami praw imigrantów. Opiniowali oni, że brak kompetentnej reprezentacji prawnej dla wielu nowojorskich imigrantów, nieznających prawa, nieposiadających pieniędzy na prawników i mających problemy z językiem, oznacza niepotrzebne deportacje, które doprowadzają do rozłąki rodzin i są niepotrzebnym balastem finansowym dla rządu.

Ubiegłego lata nowojorska rada miasta przeznaczyła 500 000 dol. na sfinansowanie pilotażowego programu, którego zadaniem było przetestowanie sensowności inicjatywy. Do projektu włączyła się szkoła prawnicza im. Benjamina N. Cardozo oraz kilka organizacji walczących o prawa imigrantów i tak powstał program pomocy dla 190 imigrantów.

"To jest kwestia sprawiedliwości – mówi Peter L. Markowitz, profesor w Cardozo Law School. – To szansa na zapoczątkowanie zmian w sposobie, w jaki traktowani są imigranci w naszym kraju".

W przyszłości pomysłodawcy NYIFUP planują zorganizować pomoc prawną dla wszystkich niezamożnych imigrantów oczekujących na deportację w więzieniach imigracyjnych: w mieście Nowy Jork, Batavia, NY, Newarku i Elizabeth w New Jersey. Rocznie do tych ośrodków trafia około 2450 imigrantów.

Pełny roczny koszt tego programu szacowany jest na 7,4 miliona dolarów. Jego zwolennicy argumentują, że skrócenie czasu, jaki imigranci spędzają w ośrodkach zatrzymań, oraz ograniczenie liczby deportacji przyniesie oszczędności w wysokości 5,9 miliona rocznie.

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Associated Press - November 14, 2014, by Martin Crutsinger - A coalition of community groups and labor unions are "fed up" with the Federal Reserve.

More than two dozen activists demonstrated outside the Fed and then met with Chair Janet Yellen on Friday as part of a new campaign seeking policy reforms and a commitment to keep interest rates low until good jobs are plentiful for all workers. Although the labor market has steadily strengthened this year, wages have remained stagnant.

During the hour-long discussion with Yellen and three other Fed board members, coalition representatives discussed problems their communities were facing with high unemployment and weak wage growth.

Ady Barkan, one of the organizers of "Fed Up: The National Campaign for a Strong Economy," said Yellen and the other Fed officials listened but made no commitments about future Fed policy.

"It was a very good conversation," said Barkan, an attorney with the Center for Popular Democracy in Brooklyn. "They listened very intently, and they asked meaningful follow-up questions."

Fed officials confirmed that the meeting took place but declined to comment on the issues raised at the meeting.

The Fed's outreach to community activists was the latest move by Yellen to focus attention on lingering problems from the Great Recession. Wearing green tee-shirts with the phrase "What Recovery?" the group had protested outside of the Fed's headquarters on Constitution Avenue under the watchful eye of nine Fed security officers.

Members of the group, some of whom had demonstrated at a central bank gathering in August in Jackson Hole, Wyoming said it was important that Fed officials not be swayed by arguments that it needs to move quickly to raise interest rates to make sure inflation does not become a threat.

"The banks are the ones that crashed the economy ... but they're the ones who got the bonuses and the bailouts while workers and homeowners like me were left to drown," said Jean Andre, 48, of New York, who said he was having a tough time finding full-time work.

In addition to Yellen, the Fed officials who took part in the meeting were Fed Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer and Fed board members Jerome Powell and Lael Brainard.

Members of the coalition said about half of the meeting was taken up by their members telling stories about the difficulty in finding jobs, particularly in disadvantaged groups and communities dealing with unemployment much higher than the 5.8 percent national average.

The Fed officials also were presented a petition signed by 5,000 people around the country urging the central bank to keep interest rates low until the country reaches full employment.

The group also pushed for a more open process in the selection of presidents of the Fed's 12 regional banks. They say the current process is too secretive and dominated by officials from banks and other businesses with little input from the public. The regional presidents, along with Fed board members in Washington, participate in the deliberations to set interest rates.

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The president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis met with activists and northside residents Wednesday over racial and economic disparities.

Neel Kashkari talked with leaders from Neighborhoods Organizing for Change for an hour — an unusual meeting of a banking insider and a group known for street demonstrations and putting political pressure on the powers that be.

"A big part of my job is to get out and understand first hand what is happening, what are the challenges," said Kashkari who has served on the central bank system since January.

In that time, the former head of the federal government's bank bailout program in 2008 has drawn attention for his warning that failure of some big banks could lead to another financial crisis.

Kashkari said that the Fed's monetary policy can have an effect on unemployment, interest rates and inflation, but he said Congress' fiscal policy will also be key in addressing racial disparities.

Anthony Newby, executive director of Neighborhoods Organizing for Change, said they talked about the high unemployment rate among African-Americans.

"Now we can spend more time collaborating, doing a deeper dive and figure out what are the structural barriers and then what can the Fed do to bridge that gap," Newby said. "That's a big deal and big starting point."

Newby added he was pleased to have someone in Kashkari's position listening to real people struggling to make ends meet.

Kashkari agreed to meet with them again.

By PETER COX 

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