Immigration Newsletter
Protecting Workers’ Rights
Comptroller Stringer is an outspoken advocate for the rights of workers in every industry across the city. Essential workers have been on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic – from our health and service workers to New Yorkers employed in the transit system. In 2021, we shouldn’t have to rally for workers’ time off to take care of their families, or for fair contracts and fair wages. Comptroller Stringer believes that if we’re going to keep our working families strong, we must fight to protect fair wages, adequate vacation time, and quality health insurance that keeps families secure. He has stood alongside workers at CSA, CWA, NYSNA, TWU Local 100, and more demanding justice.
Supporting Taxi Medallion Debt Relief
Comptroller Stringer endorsed a breakthrough proposal released by the New York Taxi Workers Alliance (NYTWA) to address the taxi medallion crisis that has led to widespread financial devastation among drivers whose medallion values plummeted. After reviewing the proposal, the Comptroller’s Office concluded that it offers a comprehensive risk management approach that could reduce future liability and costs for taxpayers. The taxi medallion crisis is a test of our commitment to fighting poverty and preserving pathways to the American Dream.
We have a fiscal and moral obligation to make this right—and embracing this plan is a start.
Fighting for Prevailing Wages
Amid the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Comptroller’s office launched a phone banking campaign to return unclaimed wages to workers cheated out of pay irrespective of immigration status. Comptroller Stringer announced nearly $2 million in stolen prevailing wages has been returned to more than 100 workers during the COVID-19 pandemic and launched a series of “Know Your Rights” virtual events in collaboration with immigrant advocates, faith leaders, and community-based organization from across the City.
Expanding Vaccine Equity and Language Access
Comptroller Stringer proposed a vaccine equity plan that includes more transparency and multi-lingual outreach to increase access for communities of color, lower-income neighborhoods, and immigrant New Yorkers. Comptroller Stringer recommended that the City look for ways to partner with ethnic and community media to publicize key information in multiple languages.
Comptroller Stringer also called on the City to allocate new funding to mitigate linguistic barriers faced by New Yorkers who speak languages of limited diffusion (LLD), including African, Asian, and Indigenous Latin American languages. To increase the supply of interpreters in the city, Comptroller Stringer supports investing in a Community Legal Interpreter Bank, a proposal put forward by African Communities Together, Masa, Asian American Foundation, and New York Immigration Coalition.
Combatting Food Insecurity
To combat food insecurity, Comptroller Stringer called for the City to create a $25 million emergency food program to serve undocumented New Yorkers left out of federal and state safety net programs, expand SNAP outreach and purchasing power, and increase cultural appropriateness in the City’s current food programming to ensure that New Yorkers of all backgrounds are able to benefit. Comptroller Stringer proposed improving kosher and halal food options in both Get Food boxes and grab and go meals, and creating a “shared delivery zone” program that would allow neighbors to accept food deliveries from online retailers at a central location, combining their purchasing power to meet retailers’ minimum purchasing requirements and share in the cost of delivery fees.
Transforming Public Safety
Comptroller Stringer unveiled a comprehensive blueprint for a new approach to public safety. The Comptroller’s plan would move responsibilities away from the NYPD, protect New Yorkers from violence, address the recent increase in shootings, improve accountability and civilian oversight of the NYPD, and reinvest police dollars into communities. Comptroller Stringer recommended eliminating any nexus between NYPD and Immigration Enforcement and ending the prison-to-deportation pipeline by decriminalizing various offenses and rolling back numerous police responsibilities.
Overhauling Workforce Development
Comptroller Stringer unveiled a comprehensive plan for overhauling workforce development in New York City, including making CUNY community colleges free for all to build a more competitive and inclusive post-pandemic economy. Comptroller Stringer supports CUNY ASAP for all community college students, which would provide MetroCards, textbook vouchers, and individualized academic counseling, as well as the New Deal for CUNY, which would make CUNY tuition free, increase full-time faculty, and invest in mental health services.