Laura Adams of The Door testifies on immigrant youth and DYCD gaps
Laura Adams of The Door says the organization handled over 2,500 immigration matters this year, including 614 unaccompanied minors. She reports drops in program attendance due to ICE fear, raises concerns about ORR and ICE targeting foster youth, and says DYCD was excluded from the audit.
Thank you.
Hello, and thank you for letting me speak here today.
And we look forward to sending our full written testimony after today's hearing.
I'm Laura Adams.
I apologize for my handwriting.
The legal program manager at The Door, which is a comprehensive youth development organization.
And at the Doors Legal Services Center this year, we've handled over 2,500 immigration matters for youth from infancy to 24 years old, including 614 unaccompanied immigrant minors.
Executive Order 13 is a great first step to ensure immigrant youth have the best success and chance at success at the growth in New York City without the fear of abusive immigration enforcement.
We have observed significant drops in our attendance at all of our programs at the door, including drop-in centers, schools, health clinics, housing assistance, and mental health programs due to fear of ICE enforcement.
And we do want to draw the council's attention to the audit's reports of the continued illegal ICE harassment of staff and participants of our city shelters and of our foster care youth and families in the ACS system.
The information in the audit on the so-called wellness checks from ICE and DHS agencies for foster care youth is consistent with what we have observed with the collusion between the Office of Refugee Resettlement and ICE.
to target recently released unaccompanied minors in New York City.
So ORR is definitely part of our immigration enforcement units at this point, and I want to draw attention to the fact that their information sharing policies are problematic here.
These young people should be able to pursue their immigration cases and live normal lives without the harassment and intimidation from the federal government once they're out of federal custody.
We do want to echo concerns that the Department of Youth and Community Development was not included in this audit or in the executive order.
Protections required for other city departments should extend to protect runaway and homeless youth, especially as hundreds of immigrant youth come to DYCD and their drop-in centers.
The New York City Council has met about DYCD in the past and their information sharing policies with ORR and ICE, so it's very relevant to this.
And they've acknowledged the sensitive nature of the information sharing on unaccompanied minors.
So finally, we do urge the codification of the protections in Executive Order 13 through the passage of legislation like the New York State Trust Act and offer our support as well for the resolution in support of TPS for Haiti.
So thank you for your time and consideration.