By Ryan Schwach<\/p>\n
A Queens representative proposed legislation that would give migrants the option to attend legally-mandated court appearances virtually and potentially avoid arrest by federal immigration officers. But the bill faces an uphill climb in the conservative legislature. <\/p>\n
The Safe Check-Ins for Immigrants Act, proposed by Queens Congressmember Grace Meng would create the virtual option and make it far less likely a migrant is detained by federal law enforcement officials while checking in on their immigration status. <\/p>\n
Meng said the bill is a step in protecting people who are just following the law when they head to the courthouse. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey are following the law, and we’re legislating that this be a better option for them,\u201d Meng told the Eagle in a phone interview. \u201cThey don’t have to go in and risk being detained for no reason at all when they were literally trying to follow the law.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe that it would help protect families,\u201d she added. <\/p>\n
Under the Trump administration, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has targeted immigration hearings, detaining migrants who attend them regardless of what a judge decides in the case. <\/p>\n
In New York City, the arrests have predominantly occurred at the immigration court inside 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan. <\/p>\n
Meng, who represents a large foreign-born contingent in her Central Queens district, said the most common question her office gets is from constituents asking if it’s safe to go to a court check-in. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe get calls, I would say, definitely every week, almost every day, from people who are asking if it’s safe for them or someone they know to go in for a lawful check-in,\u201d she said. \u201cIt’s making our communities less safe. It’s causing them not to trust law enforcement, and it’s separating families.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meng introduced the bill in April, and it currently sits in committee. <\/p>\n
The legislation has the support of many local immigration groups, including New Immigrant Community Empowerment, which is based in Queens, and the New York Immigration Coalition. <\/p>\n
In a statement to the Eagle a spokesperson for the Department of Justice said that Meng\u2019s bill was \u201creckless\u201d and would \u201cnot become law under this administration.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cEntering the United States illegally is a crime,\u201d the spokesperson said. \u201cWhile New York City continues to provide safe harbor to thousands of criminal aliens murdering, assaulting, and robbing New Yorkers, this Department of Justice will continue to work with our counterparts at DHS to deport illegal aliens and keep the American people safe.\u201d <\/p>\n
Meng\u2019s proposal has an uphill battle, and is not likely to have success in the current legislature. <\/p>\n
Meng and her Democratic colleagues in Washington have proposed other legislation that would reign in ICE and Trump\u2019s heavy handed immigration enforcement and mass deportations. <\/p>\n
Bills that would have required ICE to unmask, and wear badges and name tags like local law enforcement all failed to gain traction in the Republican-led House of Representatives. <\/p>\n
Fights over ICE\u2019s authority and funding ultimately resulted in the shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security that lasted a historic 76 days. <\/p>\n
However, Meng argued the importance of continuing attempts to regulate and control Trump\u2019s DHS. <\/p>\n
\u201cICE is running around lawlessly,\u201d she said. \u201cThey’re not even following the rules that they were originally intended to follow. I’ve put a bunch of legislation out basically requiring that they follow basic rules, asking that they are following the same rules that other federal law enforcement have to follow.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Ryan Schwach A Queens representative proposed legislation that would give migrants the option to attend legally-mandated court…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230155,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-230154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230154","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=230154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}