While President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed a $70 billion bill to continue funding his immigration crackdown, members of Rochester City Council are looking to bolster support services for families separated by that enforcement.
This month, Council will vote on contracting with Refugees Helping Refugees to support the organization’s work providing wrap-around services to families separated or facing detention or deportation. The money is sourced from funds City Council set aside for aiding the immigrant and asylum-seeker community when it approved a new Sanctuary City bill last year.
Councilmembers Stanley Martin, Mary Lupien, and Chiara Smith submitted the legislation.
“We never really focus on policy making that allows people to thrive and have their needs met,” Martin said. “So, recognizing that there's an issue with ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), this legislation is deeply in line with the commitment of the city to engage in material support by providing resources to families when they are impacted by ICE.”
Refugees Helping Refugees was tapped as a recipient of funds without a request for proposals, a typical process in selecting contractors for major city funding. The legislation cites the nearly two decades of work the organization has put into supporting the immigrant and refugee community.
Mai Abdullah is executive director of Refugees Helping Refugees. She said the current political environment, and the ramping up of immigration enforcement, has created an environment of fear and confusion in the immigrant community.
The organization, she said, offers a credible source of information and support to the community. Its resources range from legal aid to English as a second language courses.
“We have deep roots in these communities, and we've been here. We've got the proven track record of actually delivering the services, and people trust us because they walk in here and they find someone who speaks their languages,” Abdullah said. “They have someone who's from their communities, and that helps a lot to build that trust and to maintain the trust, because we do the work.”
Abdullah said “family preparation” is a major facet of the work that Refugees Helping Refugees is now doing.
“They have to designate a point of contact,” Abdullah said. “Someone has to be the guardian for the children if someone in the household has been detained or separated. There's a lot of information that's been circling around, but they come to us to give them the right information.”
The city’s sanctuary policy, its latest version adopted last August, is currently the subject of a federal lawsuit brought by U.S. Department of Justice. The complaint alleges that the policy seeks to obstruct federal immigration enforcement. The policy itself states the city will not aid in immigration enforcement, nor will it share information on people’s immigration status.
The DOJ also sued the city of Boston for a similar policy last year. That case was dismissed last month, with District Judge Leo Sorokin writing that the federal government failed to show any injury or proof that a ruling in its favor would address its issue with the policy.
The city of Rochester, in a filing late last month, is now using the Boston decision as precedent for its own case to be dismissed.
The Department of Justice, meanwhile, argued that the Boston case has no bearing on Rochester.
