Housing officials are warning New Yorkers about how to tell a real city inspector from someone who may be impersonating one amid “increased immigration enforcement,” according to a recent PSA-style video from the agency.
The video was posted just one day before federal agents claiming to be police investigating a missing child got past Columbia security guards without a warrant to arrest an Azerbaijani undergraduate student in her campus housing, according to university acting president Claire Shipman.
The video from the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, posted in both English and Spanish, was made in response to a report made by a tenant association to Cea Weaver, a longtime tenant organizer and director of the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants.
The tenant association passed along information about an incident it said occurred in early February.
“We heard from tenants in Crown Heights that there was someone buzzing on the doors saying that they were an HPD code inspector and that they were trying to get access to the building, and that it felt weird for the tenants,” Weaver said Thursday at the city’s first Rental Ripoff Hearing in Brooklyn. “They called us, and they called their neighbors, and they were able to discern that it was not an HPD code enforcement inspector.”
THE CITY was not able to verify the account right away. A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security didn’t return a request for comment right away.
HPD made the video out of an abundance of caution, according to spokesperson Ilana Maier.
“No one should have to question whether the person at their door is truly there to help,” she said in a statement. “The very idea of someone posing as an HPD inspector is deeply disturbing. New Yorkers need to know that when someone shows up at their door claiming to represent the City, it’s legitimate.”
“We know it can be frightening when someone unexpected shows up at your door, especially with increased immigration enforcement,” a voice in the video narrates on top of images of HPD inspectors. “Here’s how to know it’s really us.”
The video explains that inspectors respond to 311 complaints and may need access to a building to examine conditions. HPD inspectors, the video says, carry city-issued badges and identification, wear uniforms with the name of the agency and identify themselves by name and with their agency association.
Inspectors will never ask about immigration status, wear a bulletproof vest or ask for personal documents unrelated to housing, the video explains.
“If someone claims to be from the city and something doesn’t feel right, you don’t have to let them in,” the video said, which ends with a link to resources about rights regardless of immigration status.
The Department of Housing and Preservation produced a video on how tenants can ensure people claiming to be housing inspectors are really with the city. Credit: Screengrab via nychousing/Instagram
Officials and organizers in Minneapolis received reports of federal agents pretending to be delivery drivers, construction workers and even anti-ICE protestors amid the crackdown there this winter.
This past August, a court settlement in a class action case in Los Angeles prohibited ICE officers there from identifying as state or local law enforcement or as officials from non-federal agencies.
A DHS spokesperson has disputed that agents impersonated police to get into Columbia’s dorm saying, “the Homeland Security Investigators verbally identified themselves and visibly wore badges around their necks. They did NOT and would not identify themselves as NYPD.”
Weaver said the city is exploring other types of ways tenants can verify whether an HPD inspector is in fact at their residence, such as through calling 311.
“We’re looking at different policy solutions we can look at to make sure that it’s clear who is at your building and what they want to talk to you about,” she said.
Related