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But lately, we see the fear. We feel it ripple outward. And we know how fragile a local economy can be when fear takes hold.<\/p>\n
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When someone is afraid to drive to a doctor\u2019s appointment, pick up groceries or take their child to school, that fear moves through the community. Workers disappear. Customers stay home. Our economy feels the strain.<\/p>\n
For small businesses like mine, where margins are already tight and relationships matter, that kind of instability isn\u2019t theoretical. It\u2019s something you feel in your wallet.<\/p>\n
And beyond business, it\u2019s simply not the kind of community I want to live in.<\/p>\n
I believe Kingston can be a place where people feel safe participating in everyday life. Where local resources are used to support the well-being of our neighbors, not to create fear for families who are contributing, caring and belonging here.<\/p>\n
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The New York for All Act would help move us in that direction. It would set clear boundaries so that local police can focus on local safety, rather than being pulled into federal immigration enforcement that targets people who are not harming anyone and in fact are helping hold our communities together.<\/p>\n
The measure has broad support in the Legislature, but what it still lacks is the full backing of leaders such as Gov. Kathy Hochul, who is offering a narrower, temporary half-measure instead of the full protection of New York for All.<\/p>\n
Half-measures aren\u2019t what New York\u2019s families, businesses and communities need. Other states have already taken similar steps. New York, a place that prides itself on being welcoming, has the opportunity to do the same.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not writing this as a policy expert. I\u2019m writing as someone who stands behind a shop counter every day, who talks to neighbors, who sees firsthand how interconnected we all are.<\/p>\n
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Care isn\u2019t abstract. It shows up in the choices we make as individuals, as business owners and as a state. I\u2019ve made a choice by writing this piece; now we need our governor to make the right choice for all New Yorkers by supporting the New York for All Act. Governor, we\u2019re counting on you.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Leah Watkins is the owner of F\u00d8LK Refillery & Supply in Kingston.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bob Krist\/Getty Images I never imagined I\u2019d be writing about immigration policy. I\u2019m a small-business owner in Kingston\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212380,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,18281,9,24,63,12522],"class_list":["post-212379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-commentary","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-opiniontu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}