Proposed Legislation Could Grant State Citizenship to Undocumented Immigrants
SILive.com - June 16, 2014, by Ryan Lavis - With the legislative session in Albany scheduled to end this week, one New...
SILive.com - June 16, 2014, by Ryan Lavis - With the legislative session in Albany scheduled to end this week, one New York lawmaker is pushing legislation that would grant sweeping rights of citizenship to millions of illegal immigrants and non-citizens, including the right to vote and access to healthcare.
The New York Is Home Act, sponsored by Bronx state Senator Gustavo Rivera, would provide benefits to non-citizens who meet certain criteria.
Requirements include proof of residence in New York state for at least 3 years, pledges to abide by New York laws and uphold the state constitution, as well as a willingness to serve on New York juries. Additionally, non-citizens would also have had to pay state taxes for at least 3 years.
After meeting these criteria, non-citizens would receive a form of state citizenship that includes the right to vote in all state and local elections and hold certain public offices. Additionally, they would have access to college financial aid and health insurance programs, and the ability to apply for drivers and professional licenses, according to a summary of the bill.
Staten Island Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis (R-East Shore/Brooklyn) opposed the bill.
"Extending the privilege of voting to those in our country illegally devalues United States citizenship and further erodes the incentive to enter the country through safe and proper channels," Ms. Malliotakis said in a statement. "While some of us are fighting to protect taxpaying citizens, others are looking to give rights and benefits to non-citizens. It is a shame that during these last days of session, this is the priority of some legislators."
State Sen. Diane Savino (D-North Shore/Brooklyn) questioned the logistics of the bill, and noted the responsibility of such immigration reform should ultimately fall on Congress.
"These are issues that rightfully belong to the federal government, and we need a Congress more willing to develop comprehensive solutions to citizenship," Sen. Savino said.
According to the bill, this legislation would not interfere with the federal government's authority to regulate immigration.
The bills sponsor told the Daily News that he does not expect his legislation to pass anytime soon.
"Obviously this is not something that's going to pass immediately, but nothing as broad as this or as bold as this passes immediately," Sen. Gustavo Rivera (D-Bronx), told the Daily News.
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‘Conservatives Cannot Sit Back’: Coalition Wants to Meet With Fed Chair Janet Yellen
The Daily Signal - December 17, 2014, by Kate Scanlon - Federal Reserve chairwoman Janet Yellen met with...
The Daily Signal - December 17, 2014, by Kate Scanlon - Federal Reserve chairwoman Janet Yellen met with several left-leaning groups last month to discuss monetary policy. Now, several conservative organizations are asking for the same opportunity.
Twenty representatives from more than a dozen conservative groups hand-delivered their request to the Federal Reserve last week seeking a meeting with Yellen.
The groups, led by American Principles in Action, include Americans for Tax Reform, the Jack Kemp Foundation and Citizens for Limited Government.
The letter states that “thought leaders from the center-right” deserve the same opportunity because “the left by no means has a monopoly on concern for unemployment and wage stagnation.”
Steve Lonegan, director of monetary policy at American Principles in Action, told The Daily Signal:
Monetary policy is at the root of economic stability, critical for assuring equitable prosperity for all Americans. Conservatives are committed to building a sound economy where everyone, rich and poor, can grow and prosper.
The left has met with Janet Yellen in an effort to influence monetary policy. Conservatives cannot sit back and allow liberals to have sole voice with the Federal Reserve System.
Conservatives have the science, history, facts and philosophy for advancing good money that assures equitable prosperity for all Americans.
In November, Yellen met with representatives from several left-leaning groups, including The Center for Popular Democracy, a group that, according to its website, works with “high-impact base-building organizations, organizing alliances and progressive unions” to advance a “pro-worker, pro-immigrant, racial and economic justice agenda.”
Ady Barkan, an attorney with the center, told the Associated Press that she thought Yellen and other Fed officials “listened.”
“It was a very good conversation,” said Barkan. “They listened very intently, and they asked meaningful follow-up questions.”
According to The Daily Caller, the closed-door meeting was a source of frustration for conservatives because “the press was shut out of the meeting and no transcript made available.”
According to Bloomberg, the Nov. 14 meeting also included Fed governors Stanley Fischer, Jerome Powell and Lael Brainard.
The letter from the conservative groups argues that they deserve a similar meeting because “an evenhanded insight on achieving our shared goal of job creation and economic mobility would facilitate steps toward realization of this mutual objective.”
You can read the full letter here.
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Interviews for Resistance: New Progressive Coalition Calls for “Millions of Jobs”
Interviews for Resistance: New Progressive Coalition Calls for “Millions of Jobs”
A coalition of unions and other progressive organizations is pushing lawmakers on a jobs and infrastructure bill that...
A coalition of unions and other progressive organizations is pushing lawmakers on a jobs and infrastructure bill that would put millions of people to work.
Read the full article here.
Mayoral Hopefuls Cool to Plan to Lift Up Low-Wage Workers
Labor Press - February 13, 2013, by Marc Bussanich - While the city’s economy has been recuperating from the Great...
Labor Press - February 13, 2013, by Marc Bussanich - While the city’s economy has been recuperating from the Great Recession, low-wage workers in the city face enormous difficulties in making ends meet in one of the nation’s most expensive cities. A new report, Workers Rising, reveals policy decisions the next mayoral administration can make to improve conditions and pay for low-wage workers.
Presented at a symposium on low-wage worker organizing at the Murphy Institute, the authors of the report, UnitedNY and The Center for Popular Democracy, write that the city should raise standards by guaranteeing at least five days of paid sick leave. The city should also regulate high-violation industries, establish a Mayor’s Office of Labor Standards to investigate complaints by workers and pass a resolution that’ll allow the city to pass a higher minimum wage than the state.
According to the report, the city’s economy is shedding living wage jobs, but is adding low-wage, service sector jobs such as restaurants (42,000) and retail trade (27,000).
Prince Jackson works as a security officer for the Air Serv Corporation at Kennedy airport and is part of a committee of security officers organizing for better pay and the appropriate equipment to do their jobs that ensures the safety of passengers.
He worked all night, but said it was important for him to be at the event.
“I’m very tired, but I will do anything that I can do to raise the standards for my fellow workers at the airport.”
Alterique Hall is a retail worker who said he’s behind his rent because he’s paid very low wages.
“It’s difficult. Some days I just want to lie down and cry because I’m being paid and treated poorly. We need to fight for higher wages to better our futures,” said Hall.
A car wash worker who worked for seven years at a carwash owned by John Lage in SoHo, owner of multiple carwashes throughout the city, will soon be laid off because Lage is selling the property to a developer. The workers at the SoHo facility voted to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union in November, but Lage said the property was up for sale before the election.
Council Member Gale Brewer welcomed the proposal to create a local office for labor standards.
“All the other cities and states that have paid sick leave have such an office. Right now, the only way to get a complaint on many of these issues is on a complaint-by-complaint basis. There isn’t currently any organization; the state doesn’t have enough staff. You need a local office that will be a partner with the employee and employer to come up with safe standards,” Brewer said.
Also joining Ms. Brewer were two mayoral hopefuls—Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and former comptroller and 2009 mayoral candidate, William Thompson. They both said they support the movement to help low-wage workers, but they did not say they would enact the authors’ proposals if elected mayor.
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Activist: U.S. Response to Puerto Rico “Lifts the Veil of Colonialism” & 119 Years of Exploitation
Activist: U.S. Response to Puerto Rico “Lifts the Veil of Colonialism” & 119 Years of Exploitation
The U.S. military has sent more than 4,000 soldiers to Puerto Rico as the island continues to grapple with a dire...
The U.S. military has sent more than 4,000 soldiers to Puerto Rico as the island continues to grapple with a dire shortage of clean water, food and electricity nearly two weeks after Hurricane Maria. For more on the militarization of Puerto Rico in the aftermath of the devastating storm, we speak with Xiomara Caro Diaz, lawyer, activist and director of New Organizing Projects at the Center for Popular Democracy.
Watch the video and read the transcript here.
Ciudades Invierten Para Que Más Inmigrantes se Hagan Ciudadanos
Vivelo Hoy - September 17, 2014, by Jaime Reyes - Chicago se unió a las ciudades de los Angeles y Nueva York en el...
Vivelo Hoy - September 17, 2014, by Jaime Reyes - Chicago se unió a las ciudades de los Angeles y Nueva York en el programa “Cities for Citizenship” para que más inmigrantes legales se hagan ciudadanos.
El programa, que además ayudará a inmigrantes con micropréstamos, servicios financieros y legales, será financiado por la corporación Citigroup, con más de $1 millón, y será coordinado por las organizaciones no lucrativas Center for Popular Democracy y National Partnership for New Americans.
Según un comunicado del municipio de Chicago, en Estados Unidos hay más de 8.8 millones de residentes legales, quienes son elegibles para ser ciudadanos.
“Los inmigrantes que se naturalizan hacen grandes contribuciones a nuestras comunidades, ciudades y país y nos conviene colectivamente promover la ciudadanía”, indicó el alcalde de Chicago, Rahm Emanuel, junto a los alcaldes Eric Garcetti, de los Angeles y Bill de Blasio, de Nueva York
Para leer más de nuestra cobertura sobre inmigrantes, visite este enlace.
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Trump’s Immigration Policy ‘Fever Dream’
“The administration is “creating an environment of profound hostility,” as Ana Maria Archila, the co-executive director...
“The administration is “creating an environment of profound hostility,” as Ana Maria Archila, the co-executive director for the Center for Popular Democracy (CPD), told me. (Archila was one of the women who passionately confronted Senator Jeff Flake in an elevator last week during the Senate hearing on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, shortly before the senator urged an FBI investigation into the sexual-assault allegations.) Together with Make the Road New York (MRNY), CPD published an alarming data brief estimating that if the administration were able to effectively implement its “zero-tolerance” policy—its attempt to prosecute all people who cross the border outside of a port of entry—the number of migrants in private detention centers would rocket from between 290 to 580 percent in the next two years.
Read the full article here.
New York State Becomes First in the Nation to Provide Lawyers for All Immigrants Detained and Facing Deportation
New York State Becomes First in the Nation to Provide Lawyers for All Immigrants Detained and Facing Deportation
The Vera Institute of Justice and partner organizations today announced that detained New Yorkers in all upstate...
The Vera Institute of Justice and partner organizations today announced that detained New Yorkers in all upstate immigration courts will now be eligible to receive legal counsel during deportation proceedings. The 2018 New York State budget included a grant of $4 million to significantly expand the New York Immigrant Family Unity Project (NYIFUP), a groundbreaking public defense program for immigrants facing deportation that was launched in New York City in 2013...
Read full article here.
Under pressure, U.S. Federal Reserve takes baby steps toward a more transparent and inclusive era
Under pressure, U.S. Federal Reserve takes baby steps toward a more transparent and inclusive era
Last year’s behind-the-scenes selection of three men with ties to Goldman Sachs to serve atop the Federal Reserve did...
Last year’s behind-the-scenes selection of three men with ties to Goldman Sachs to serve atop the Federal Reserve did not go over well with outspoken civic groups and many Democrats, including Hillary Clinton, who have all called for a more transparent and inclusive central bank. In response to the critics, the Fed has rolled out a series of announcements, online forums and face-to-face meetings with Americans to portray a more open process of selecting its 12 district presidents that is also more sensitive to racial and gender diversity.
The Minneapolis Fed, like its counterparts in Philadelphia and Dallas last year, named a president in Neel Kashkari with a past at Goldman, the Wall Street bank. But it also broke ranks from others when it released video testimonials from directors shedding light on the year-long search process, and even published a “summary of attributes” sought in the candidate. The Atlanta Fed said last month it seeks a “diverse set of candidates” to replace outgoing chief Dennis Lockhart, and this month its board chair hosted a pubic webcast to explain the historically shrouded search process, raising hopes it would name the first black or Latino Fed president in the central bank’s 103-year history.
“In the Federal Reserve system we are taking this very seriously, but it’s not just because we want to go and say we’re diverse,” Loretta Mester, the Cleveland Fed President, told a gathering of low-wage workers and progressive economists organized by Fed Up, a labor-affiliated coalition of civic groups pushing for reforms. “It really is about … getting different view points that are very helpful to us in setting policy and thinking about the economy and understanding the trends,” she said at the Cleveland Fed on Friday. Mester met the group a day after her bank launched an online application form for the public to recommend people “diverse in backgrounds and perspectives” for board positions and advisory roles across her Midwest district. Asked to what extent outside pressure prompted the move, a spokeswoman said it was “just the latest in our ongoing efforts to broaden our outreach.”
The 12 Fed presidents have five rotating votes on U.S. interest rate policy. Unlike the five current governors at the Fed Board in Washington, who are selected by the White House and approved by the Senate, the presidents are chosen by their district directors, half of whom are themselves picked by private local banks that technically own the Fed banks. The dizzying structure is meant to ensure views from across the country are heard. But critics say it leaves the Fed beholden to bankers who are not representative of the public, and they point out that 11 of 12 district presidents are white while 10 of them are men. Among employees at the Fed Board in Washington, including service workers, 43 percent were non-white and 43 percent female last year. However at the executive level it was 18 percent and 37 percent, respectively, according to the central bank.
Clinton, the presidential candidate, has come out in favor of dropping bankers from district boards and making the Fed “more representative of America as a whole,” according to her party’s platform. That followed a May letter from 127 lawmakers to Fed Chair Janet Yellen urging more diversity.
After years of resisting more overt political efforts to curb its independence, the Fed under Yellen appears willing to take small steps in the name of transparency and inclusively. In an unusual entry in minutes of their meeting last month, Fed officials discussed a staff analysis of “differential patterns of unemployment across racial and ethnic groups.” U.S. unemployment among blacks is twice that of whites.
“While we applaud this progress, these very basic steps were available to them for the last hundred years and have only been rolled out very recently,” Shawn Sebastian, a Fed Up field director, said of the series of efforts by Fed banks.
In its latest critique, Fed Up called it “disappointing” that Nicole Taylor, a black woman and dean of community engagement and diversity at Stanford University whose term as director at the San Francisco Fed is soon to expire, would be succeeded on that district’s board by Sanford Michelman, a white man who is co-founder of law firm Michelman & Robinson LLP. John Williams, president of the San Francisco Fed, told reporters on Wednesday that while he has no control over the selection of directors, this board revamp “just redoubles my efforts and my team’s efforts to make sure that we are getting the voices and experiences from across the spectrum.” He added: “It’s definitely a step back in terms of what I’d like to see on our board. We’re working actively to build representation of women and minorities.”
By Jonathan Spicer
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Appointment of Another Former Goldman Sachs Insider Shows Why Fed Presidential Appointment Process Needs Reform
Appointment of Another Former Goldman Sachs Insider Shows Why Fed Presidential Appointment Process Needs Reform
Jordan Haedtler, Campaign Manager for the Fed Up coalition, released the following statement following the Minneapolis...
Jordan Haedtler, Campaign Manager for the Fed Up coalition, released the following statement following the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank’s announcement that it would appoint Neel Kashkari as its president:
“For the past year, the Fed Up coalition has worked to develop relationships with the presidents of all 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks, and we look forward to developing a relationship with Neel Kashkari. When he ran for California Governor last year, Mr. Kashkari spent a week posing as a jobseeker in some of the hardest hit parts of the state. We hope Mr. Kashkari recognizes that job prospects remain far too weak for too many people, particularly Black and Latino people, and that his brief experiences searching for jobs in California are the real, lived experience for millions of people every day. Our partners in Minneapolis look forward to welcoming Mr. Kashkari to the Minneapolis region, and showing him the many communities in the region that are still struggling with economic recovery.
"Mr. Kashkari joins a Federal Reserve System that too often excludes the perspectives of working families and communities of color. We are very disappointed that his appointment marks the third presidential appointment this year of a regional Bank president with strong ties to Goldman Sachs. Come January, 1/3rd of the 12 regional Bank presidents will have served in senior roles at the investment bank that most epitomizes the problems that led to the financial crisis.
"Kashkari’s appointment illustrates the problem with the regional Bank president selection process. Federal Reserve Bank presidents are some of the most influential economic policymakers in the country, and they have an obligation to represent the public. Unfortunately, the public is completely shut out of the process for their selection, which is dominated by corporate and financial elites.
"We were very pleased when the Minneapolis Fed took a small and unprecedented step toward transparency by outlining the criteria for their next president. We wish the Minneapolis Fed had gone a step further, publishing the list of candidates being considered, and giving the public an opportunity for input. A history of working with labor and community groups, and an understanding of how working families and communities of color have been impacted by a sluggish economic recovery should qualify candidates for consideration. But the presidential appointments we have seen this year suggest that regional Banks are looking for a history of working at Goldman Sachs instead.”
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The Center for Popular Democracy promotes equity, opportunity, and a dynamic democracy in partnership with innovative base-building organizations, organizing networks and alliances, and progressive unions across the country. CPD builds the strength and capacity of democratic organizations to envision and advance a pro-worker, pro-immigrant, racial justice agenda.
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