Wednesday Headlines: New York For All Edition
State lawmakers are pushing for immigration protections that could protect deliveristas confronting law enforcement, and immigrant rights are workers’ rights, too, according to Ligia Guallpa, the executive director of Worker’s Justice Project.
“It’s an essential bill to protect New Yorkers, particularly frontline workers, who consistently interact with [the] NYPD in the streets, in this case, like deliveristas, who have been until recently, the main target of NYPD criminal enforcement,” Guallpa said.
Guallpa is referencing a recently ended New York City policy, first reported by Streetsblog, of issuing criminal summonses to bikers in New York City who commit similar infractions to motorists, the same motorists who break similar traffic laws to cyclists but sometimes go unpunished.
In the process of interacting with law enforcement, immigrant delivery workers can interact with law enforcement, a situation that can lead to detainment, deportation or worse under the Trump administration’s aims to deport residents not born in America en masse.
The New York For All Act (S2235A/A3506A), sponsored by state Sen. Andrew Gounardes (D-Brooklyn) and Assembly Member Karines Reyes (D-Bronx), prevents collusion between state and local officials and immigration enforcement, and after initially appearing a bridge too far for Gov. Hochul, it is being offered by state lawmakers, likely in an amended form, as a ballast against the federal government’s attempts to upend the lives of immigrant New Yorkers.
“Anything that fails to prohibit this collaboration from continuing would fail a lot of immigrant New Yorkers,” said state Sen. Julia Salazar (D-Brooklyn). “It would be, in my opinion, a failure to do something that actually is in the interest of public safety.”
In other news:
- A hit-and-run car driver was arrested and charged after allegedly killing a person biking in Atlantic Beach. (Newsday)
- Long Islanders are faced with the choice of driving faster or driving safer and arriving at the wrong decision. (Newsday)
- State government might top up the Atlantic Yards platform project with $350 million in funding. (Gothamist)
- President Trump is (surprisingly) signaling support for the Second Avenue Subway project as New York sues his administration for the rest of its funding. (NY1)
- Democratic Socialist David Orkin is picking up labor union support in his primary challenge against Assembly Member Jenifer Rajkumar (D-Queens). (QNS)
- The jury began deliberations in the Orange County DoorDash shooting trial. (Mid-Hudson News)
- An Albany police chase ended in a car crash on Albany’s take on Spaghetti Junction: I-787. (The Times Union)
- Rochester is tooting its own horn over an $18-million road project on Bull’s Head Street meant to enhance safety and connectivity. (The Rochester Beacon)
- Some officials say shifting mail-in ballot deadlines will complicate November’s election. (The Buffalo News)
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