Tuesday’s election results are concerning for many of us at CIANA. We want to affirm our support for immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers, no matter where they come from or how long they have lived here.
As we head into unsafe times for our newcomer immigrants, we will continue to offer our holistic social services, provide them with up-to-date information on laws and policies, and inform them of their rights. We will help keep them on track to independence and self-sufficiency, which, in turn, will make their integration into our communities safer, healthier, and more successful. This has been CIANA’s mission since Day 1, and it will remain unchanged going forward.
CIANA has helped our immigrant communities through many difficult and frightening times. We were founded in 2006 as a response to post-9/11 anti-Arab and anti-Muslim bigotry. We vividly remember the ICE raids, including workplace raids and heightened surveillance of immigrant-serving organizations, the “special registration” of immigrant men from Muslim-majority countries, the more recent Muslim Ban, the rescinding of DACA, the cruel separation of children from their parents, and the increased ICE presence in NYC.
We are also fully aware of the false allegations of “spikes in crime” attributed to migrants and asylum seekers that have led to immigrants being harassed, threatened, and attacked, even when they are legal US residents and citizens. Given the current political climate, legal immigrants may also get caught up in the “rounding up” of immigrants, lose their immigration legal status, or permission to remain in the U.S.
We cannot ignore or underestimate the potential challenges that lie ahead. Our immigrant communities are living with considerable fear and distress. There is widespread dread of what’s to come. Ensuring the safety of all our communities will not be achieved through mass deportations which will devastate families who may still be in the process of completing their immigration status or are in “mixed status families” and could be separated from their children and family members, or even be at high risk of their whole family being deported.
The impact of deporting undocumented immigrants on the American workforce and the effects on our local communities also cannot be overstated. These frightening policies will not only hurt the economy, drive inflation, and create social upheaval, but will also fuel the cycle of marginalization, and deepen the divide between immigrants and native-born Americans.
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