Nazia Fiazi of Health Justice for New York testifies on accessible protections

Good morning, members of the committee.

My name is Nazia Fiazi.

I'm a steering member of the Health Justice for New York, and I'm currently a grad student studying data analytics and public health policy at Mount Sinai.

I'm here with also a committee member, Steve Arbog.

My background has been in neuroscience research and management.

I say this because it's relevant to what I'm about to say.

I'm also here from a personal experience.

I was once an immigrant myself.

So I understand the challenges immigrants face is not always visible in a policy document or statistic.

Sometimes they are simply the fear and uncertainty that come with interacting with institutions you don't always know that you can trust.

That is why I believe that protecting immigrant New Yorkers has to mean more than creating policies on paper.

These protections have to be something people can actually feel when they walk into a hospital or a shelter, a school, or a city agency.

For many immigrants, there's already a fear of interacting with the government.

When you add the fear of immigration enforcement, that fear can become a barrier to getting help.

Someone may be sick but hesitate to go to the hospital.

A parent may need assistance for their child but be afraid to ask for it.

Someone experiencing domestic violence and mental health crisis or another urgent situation may worry.

about what information will be collected and where it could go.

From a public health perspective, this matters because fear can become a barrier to care.

I believe the city should focus not only on whether agencies have the correct policies, but on whether New Yorkers can actually understand those protections.

I would like to see clear multilingual information about immigrant rights.

Available where people receive services that are not buried on hard-to-navigate government websites.

I would also like to see regular training for city employees that are front-facing with immigrants so that people will receive the same protections regardless of which agency or employee they interact with.

I believe the city should be able to have ways to measure whether these policies are doing what they say they are, how effective they are working for the people.

We need to understand if people are avoiding health care and other essential services because they're afraid.

Are agencies consistently following these procedures that are already in place and what gaps are missing?

In addition, I want us to think about this through the experience of immigrant women.

During my times as a case manager at a family shelter, it was predominantly immigrant women who represented their families.

These women were seeking health care for pregnancy, domestic violence, mental health, and other pertinent services.

A lot of times I had tough conversations with these folks about doing what's best for them while trying to calm their feels about putting themselves and their families at risk by getting their basic needs taken care of.

My message today is simple.

A right that people are afraid to exercise is not truly accessible.

New York City has an opportunity.

to make its protections practical, understandable, and accessible to the people who need them.

Thank you for allowing me to testify today.