With the election of Barack Obama as president and increased Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress, civil liberties groups are chomping at the bit to restore constitutional rights compromised or eliminated by the Bush administration. The American Civil Liberties Union already has issued a very long list of "Actions for Restoring America" that it says will "begin repairing the damage" it contends Bush did to constitutional rights.
New York has its own African American liberal executive in Gov. David Paterson, and (like Congress) both houses of the state legislature are in Democratic hands -- if not Democratic control given the machinations of three Democrat Senator holdouts. This has civil rights groups here eager (for the most part) to enact their agendas.
Much has been said about the Democratic takeover of the New York State Senate and whether or not the new majority will take up a bill allowing same-sex couples to marry here. State Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr. of the Bronx, one of three Democrats who refuses to commit to voting for Democratic Sen. Malcolm Smith as majority leader, has said he will not vote for a leader who will not pledge to block any marriage equality bill.
Beyond same sex marriage, a whole slew of civil rights legislation that has been passed by the Democrat-led Assembly may well pass in a newly Democratic Senate. And some of those concerned about victims' rights and the unborn worry that the new Senate will be less sympathetic to their issues.
The marriage issue remains the most contentious of these, even though same-sex marriages have been recognized in New York State since 2003 when gay couples from New York started going to Ontario to marry legally. (All of Canada opened marriage to same-sex couples by act of parliament in 2005.)
While New York State itself does not grant licenses for same-sex marriages, it does recognize legal ones from elsewhere as it does all marriages that are not "abhorrent" to public policy. Former Comptroller Alan Hevesi ruled that the state pension system had to recognize same-sex spouses in 2004. Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer made sure that the state and any municipality participating in its benefit plans covered these spouses. And earlier this year Paterson issued a directive ordering all departments of state government to make sure that their policies recognized these spouses or tell him why they should be exempt from this requirement.
The tax department, however, has been stonewalling requests for its position. The department has said that legally married same-sex couples cannot file as married in New York because state tax law mandates anyone filing here
use their federal income-tax filing status, and federal law does indeed bar recognition of same-sex marriages under the Clinton-era Defense of Marriage Act.
Just this past week, upstate Monroe County abandoned its appeal of a decision in a case —Martinez v. Monroe County brought by the New York Civil Liberties Union — that ordered it to recognize a married lesbian couple as married for purposes of extending benefits to the spouse of one of the county's employees. In February, five judges – all appointed by Republicans – in an upstate appeals court unanimously upheld the trial court's decision in favor of the couple, who had married in Canada in 2004.
The state insurance superintendent just ordered all insurance companies in New York to treat legally married gay couples as married in accordance with Martinez.
So even though New York gay couples lost a case in the Court of Appeals seeking the right to marry here in 2006, as of Nov. 12, they only have to hop a Metro North train to the marriage bureau in Connecticut to obtain a license and tie the knot. They then will be as married as they would have been had they been allowed to marry here. All that opponents of same-sex marriage here are doing is driving the lucrative wedding business out of the state at a time when the economy is reeling.
Diaz said he wants a referendum on a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage here, similar to Proposition 8, which California voters approved on Election Day. There is virtually no way, though, that that would happen given the difficulty of getting measures on the ballot, the rigors of the state constitutional amendment process and the resistance of the legislature to such a measure.
New York currently is one of only five states that do not ban same-sex marriage by law or constitutional amendment. For a decade some state legislators here have promoted a bill that would change that and make "marriage absolutely void if contracted by two persons of the same sex." Even the Republican Senate did not pass this state Defense of Marriage Act. Now its prospect appears even dimmer. The bill's chief sponsors were Queens Republican Sen. Serphin Maltese, who just lost re-election bid, and Assemblymember Anthony Seminerio, a Queens Democrat who was indicted for receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes. Despite that, Seminario, who was running unopposed, won re-election with the endorsements of the Democratic, Republican, Independence and Conservative parties—all of whom had decided to back him before his Sept. 10 arrest.
What did pass the State Assembly in 2007, though, was a bill introduced by Spitzer and shepherded through by Assemblymember Daniel O'Donnell, a Westside Democrat, to let same-six couple marry in New York. The Senate Republican majorty blocked the bill from coming to a vote in the Senate.
The balance of power in the Senate has shifted since then, as has the political climate. The vote in California -– where, by a 52 to 48 percent margin, people voted to eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry -- has triggered protests in all 50 states and internationally, including two demonstrations attracting 10,000 each in New York City. It's a revival of street activism not seen here since the murder of Matthew Shepherd in 1997 or the days of ACT UP's AIDS demonstrations in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
With the passage of the state constitutional amendment in California, the 18,000 marriages of same-sex couples, including many from New York, who were wed there, are in a kind of legal limbo to be determined by the state's high court no sooner than March 2009. At that time, the court there will also decide whether the constitutional amendment itself was constitutionally valid. In the meantime, California Attorney General Jerry Brown has opined that marriages cannot themselves be undone by the vote on the amendment.
At a town hall meeting on the marriage issue at the LGBT Community Center in New York on Nov. 24, State Sen. Tom Duane, who is gay, predicted that Malcolm Smith would indeed be elected majority leader on January 9 and that the marriage equality bill would pass the Senate. But the national opponents of opening marriage have announced that, fresh from their victory in California, they are bringing their fight to New York and New Jersey.
The New York Times tried to stir the pot on Nov. 28 by asserting that Senate Democrats are so divided on whether to allow gay couples to marry in New York that many wanted to delay the issue until after the “2009 legislative session.” The reporter seemed not to understand that the legislative session is 2009-'10 and that Paterson has no interest whatsoever in letting this issue fester until after his run for election in 2010 since he has been as forthright as any politician in the nation in his support of access to marriage for gay couples. What’s more, far from being one who "avoids questions on the topic," as the Times wrote, Smith has reiterated his support for same-sex marriage at public forums since the election, while acknowledging the need to focus on the economy first.
The Times article also tried to paint the Empire State Pride Agenda as “quiet” on the issue, when in fact the group’s executive director was laying out strategy for passage of the Senate bill at a packed public forum on Nov. 24. (I reported on this for the Gay City News.)
In an interview after the Times story appeared, Alan Van Capelle, executive director of the Pride Agenda, said the article failed to mention that many gay married couples already are recognized by New York State as married and that all Assembly members who voted for the bill last year were re-elected in November. In a release, he said, “There are no shortcuts and there is no one waiting to give this bill to our community.” The group is focusing on both sides of the aisle and on building labor, religious and especially constituent support for the measure.
"It’s going to happen before David Paterson runs for election,” said Sen. Tom Duane, the chief sponsor of the marriage equality bill in his house. “It’s 50-50 whether it happens this year or next. I’d be disappointed if New Jersey [which already has full civil union rights for gay couples] does it before us.” But were that to occur it would put valid marriage licenses for gay couples in New York City as close as a PATH ride, making the Senate's resistance New York's marriage bureaus to these couples more and more absurd.
The Catholic Conference, representing Roman Catholic bishops in Albany, and the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights plan to be one group working to prevent the state from opening marriage to gay couples.
The group's concerns go beyond that, however. William Donahue, executive director of the Catholic League, worries that the new Democratic majority in the Senate will also repeal all of the state's abortion restrictions and that "partial birth" or late-term abortion will have fewer restrictions. He, and the Catholic Conference, are opposing the "Reproductive Health and Privacy Act" to codify abortion rights under the Roe v. Wade decision of the Supreme Court. And he warns that "Catholic hospitals and doctors could be required to perform abortion," a charge vigorously contested by pro-choice advocates.
New York legalized abortion in 1970 when both houses of the legislature were in Republican hands, by the way, albeit Republicans of a more moderate and liberal stripe. The abortion rights advocates want to ensure that, even if a future Supreme Court restricts access to abortion, abortion would remain available in New York.
Other parts of the conference's agenda, which were not moving in the current legislature, now looks even less likely to pass with Democratic majorities in both houses. They include the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, which would "prohibit the assault or homicide of an unborn child during the commission of a crime against the mother," and a ban on "post-viability abortions." The conference also opposes legislation to allow physician-assisted suicide in New York.
One civil rights issue, though, the Catholic Conference may find common ground with most liberal groups: abolishing the death penalty once and for all in the state. The Court of Appeals struck down the death penalty law in New York in 2004, but the conference wants this state to follow New Jersey's lead in abolishing it in a statute.
For decades, civil rights advocates and others have tried to change or eliminate the state's harsh Rockefeller drug laws. In a recent article on the new landscape in Washington and Albany, New York Civil Liberties Union executive director Donna Lieberman expressed hope for repeal or at least modification of the "cruel and inhumane Rockefeller Drug Laws, which have sent thousands of our neighbors to prison for non-violent drug offenses." Gov. Paterson is a historic opponent of the laws.
The civil liberties union also is organizing to block implementation of the federal Real ID Act. It wants New York to join other states that have formally rejected this national identification card system that, according to Lieberman, poses "an enormous threat to privacy" and "imposes a massive financial burden on the states."
Another threat, in the eyes of some civil libertarians, comes from the state's DNA databank. Bob Perry, legislative director of the NYCLU, wrote that his group's lawyers "are all but alone in making the case that the rapid expansion of the … databank poses grave risks to rights of privacy and due process." He expressed particular concern over a proposal from the state Commission on Forensic Science to "permit law enforcement to obtain a DNA sample from a family member of an individual whose DNA is a â€partial match' with DNA evidence from a crime scene."
The Senate is also likely to take up a bill passed by the Assembly to add the category of "gender identity and expression" to the state human rights law, protecting transgenders, and to pass the Assembly's anti-bullying bill, instituting comprehensive anti-bullying programs in all schools in the state.
While the budget negotiations and wrangling over the economic crisis will dominate most of the debate in Albany for several months, the changed power balance in the Senate is sure to lead to discussions and implementation of civil rights legislation long supported by just one house, the Assembly. That could lead to big changes on a number of key issues.
Fong Oi Kan wishes that she only worked five days a week. But in the midst of the worst economy in decades, she said she has to work six days a week in order to keep her head above water.
"The business has gone down a lot in the last few weeks," said Kan, a native of Malaysia, who works as a hair stylist in a salon in Chinatown. "It started in the summer, but it just got worse and worse."
Kan is among the many immigrants whose livelihood is in the service industry – hair salon, restaurant, housekeeping and so on – and who feel the pain brought by the economic downturn. They might not have a 401K retirement plan or investment in the stock market, but many of their customers do, making the effects on people such as Kan harsh and evident. As people feel the economic pain, they may cut back on going to a salon to have their hair done, a luxury in a tough time like these.
"Fewer people are getting perms, curls or coloring," said Kan. "When you don’t have any chemicals involved, the profit margin is very small. A haircut is only about $20 to $30 in Chinatown. And you have to split it with the salon owner."
In the restaurant industry, immigrant workers make up the majority of the back-of-the-house position – cooks, dishwashers, kitchen helpers and so on. A banquet manager at the Rainbow Room at Rockefeller Center, requesting anonymity to protect his job, said the business has suffered as some regular customers – several major financial and insurance corporations - have canceled bookings for holiday parties.
"We are currently underbooked, which is very unusual for this time of the year since the holiday season is so close," said the manager, who is from the Dominican Republic. "The kitchen staff are laid off more frequently, for two weeks here and there."
"Even though I still have my job, my income is reduced because a part of it comes from gratuity," said the manager, adding that the entire company got a 10 percent salary cut.
S. L. Tang, a waitress in an upscale Japanese restaurant in the West Village, said her employer has asked the wait staff to take turn to take one extra day off every week. She said on a recent night the restaurant had only 14 reservations, and everyone finished their work an hour earlier than usual.
"I have some regular customers who never used to ask about the prices when they ordered specials, " said Tang. "Now they do and they also tend to order less food and drinks." She added that the once popular $65 set meal is now a hard sell, replaced by a la carte orders and shared entrees.
"I lose about $150 to $200 every week," said Tang. "This winter is going to be very tough."
The economic downturn has taken a far greater toll on immigrants who are not citizens than it has on the U.S. population as a whole, according to a recent report by the Pew Hispanic Center. The median annual income of non-citizen immigrant households, which account for 7 percent of all U.S. households and 52 percent of all immigrant households, dropped 7.3 percent from 2006 to 2007. In contrast, the median annual income of all U.S. households increased by 1.3 percent during the same period.
Rakesh Kochhar, the author of the report, noted that many non-citizens are employed in blue-collar production, construction or lower-ranked occupations in the service sector. Demand for these jobs increases rapidly in economic expansions but falls just as suddenly during economic slowdowns, the report said.
Meanwhile, a survey conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center showed that half of all Latinos say that the situation for Latinos in this country is worse now than it was a year ago. Family remittances from the U.S. to Mexico were down by 12 percent in August compared to the previous year, according to the Bank of Mexico, the largest drop on record since the bank started tracking remittances in 1996. The percentage translated into about $300 million, affecting Mexico’s second biggest source of foreign income after the revenue from its oil exports.
Demand for day laborers in the New York area has declined, according to the New York Times, prompting many immigrant workers to wonder whether the notion of America as a land of opportunity is still valid.
"The American dream isn’t an American dream," said Jairo Mancillas, an immigrant from El Salvador. He used to send as much as $600 home a week but now he can barely afford to send any money in bad weeks.
Many laborers said they are lucky if they can work two days a week, a drastic change from two years ago when the housing boom in New York kept them busy at least five days a week.
As a result of the falloff in work, some immigrants also face the possibility of losing their houses, Nancy Foner, a sociologist at Hunter College, told AFP, the French news agency. "They are vulnerable because they often make do by pooling incomes in their families," she said. "If one loses a job, it may be very hard for them to meet mortgage payments."
As many immigrant workers got the pink slips, they turn to community-based organizations for assistance in job placement and training.
"A lot of people are looking for jobs because of the economic downturn in addition to the large influx of immigrants in the city," said Pearl Chin, executive director of Chinatown Manpower Project, a non-profit agency that provide social services and career training to Chinese immigrants in New York City. "We have been seeing a lot more people lately," she said, adding that the increase in demand for the agency's services began in the summer.
Some immigrants may caution their relatives to stay home. Data released in September by the Census Bureau showed that overall immigration slowed dramatically in 2007, though the bureau does not distinguish between legal and illegal immigrants.
"The decline in job prospects in construction, service and other low-skilled jobs are communicated through extended networks of would-be movers from Mexico and Latin America," William Frey, a demographer at the Washington-based Brookings Institution, told the Daily News. "It also may propel more return migration," he added.
The Center for Immigration Studies, a research organization that supports tighter controls on immigration, has estimated that the number of undocumented immigrants in the country has declined by 11 percent, or 1.3 million, since August 2007. As of May, the estimated illegal immigrant population in the United States was 11.2 million.
This decline, according to the report, is at least seven times larger than the number of undocumented workers the government removed in the last 10 months. In light of that, the center attributes most of the decline to people leaving the country on their own because of rising unemployment rate and increased immigration enforcement.
The effects of the downturn, though, extend beyond low-wage immigrant workers to all immigrants, just as it reaches most native-born Americans, because immigrants are well represented in every profession.
"Although there is often a presumption that immigrants are concentrated at the bottom of the economy, we actually see immigrants robustly represented in every part of the economy -- from top to bottom," said David Dyssegaard Kallick, a senior fellow at the www.fiscalpolicy.org Fiscal Policy Institute. "I would expect the economic downturn would have broadly similar affect for immigrants and for others."
However, he noted that many immigrants work in areas that could weather a recession, such as health care, the public sector and higher education.
James Parrott, chief economist at the Fiscal Policy Institute, shares Kallick’s view. "We are headed for a fairly sharp job loss that is likely to occur across the spectrum of industries and occupations," said Parrott. "I don't see any disproportionate impact on immigrants, but they will be hit along with everyone else."
"On the other hand, during a downturn, we may see heightened pressures to work off the books, a development that will further drive down wages and working conditions for recent immigrant workers," he added, noting that the estimated inflation-adjusted median wage in New York City dropped by 4 percent for the 12 months through June 2008 compared to the prior year.
But for Fong Oi Kan, the hair stylist in Chinatown, going to work means there is still a chance to make some money.
"Even if a lot of time I am just sitting there," said Kan, "it still beats staying at home making nothing at all."
Larry Tung, a native of Taiwan, teaches media and film courses at Kean University in Union, New Jersey. He is also a documentary filmmaker whose work focuses on immigrant and Asian American issues.Â
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Is this the year the sleeping giant awakes?
The giant in question is the nation's growing Latino vote. At a forum at the New School last week participants discussed what role Latinos, Asians and other immigrants and their children might play in this year's election and in elections to come.
Overall, Latinos account for about 7.9 percent of U.S. voters and 9.3 percent in New York State. While New York tends to be largely ignored in presidential elections -- both parties see it as a Democratic stronghold -- Latinos could make a big difference in more hotly contested states, such as Florida, Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado, according to statistics compiled by Feet in Two Worlds, a project of the Center for New York City Affairs at the New School.
Like other Americans, Latinos will go to the polls in November concerned about the economy, health care and an array of other issues, but last week's speakers agreed that the immigration debate will play a major role as well.
"Immigration is a very personal matter," said Pilar Morrera of La OpiniĂłn, a leading Spanish-language daily, an issue that immediately affects Latinos and their families.
Latinos do not vote in the same numbers as other Americans, but concerns about immigration have motivated more who are naturalized citizens to register, according to Arturo Vargas, executive director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials. These people are voting "out of anger and out of fear and a feeling that if they register to vote, it's an act of self defense," Vargas said. He predicted Latino participation would continue to increase. "You now have a new generation of Latino youth who are coming of age at a very politicized time," he said.
Asian Americans, who represent a far smaller percentage of the population than Latinos, are more likely to be overlooked in campaigns, said Glenn Magpantay, staff attorney at the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund. However, he said they can still make a difference and may have played a key role in Virginia Democrat James Webb's defeat of Republican George Allen in the 2006 Senate race -- after Allen was captured on video calling an Indian American man a "macaca."
Whatever happens this year, immigrants stand to have increasing influence in American politics, said reporter Aswini Anburajan. "It will build election cycle after election cycle," she said. Many immigrants maybe disappointed if Barack Obama does not win this year, she continued, "but they're not going to stop voting.... You're building a new political class ... and that's going to make a difference in the future."
This months' Citizen assesses the role immigration issues have played -- or more accurately, not played - in the campaign so far and looks at the race for the White House from the perspectives of several immigrant groups. Getting away from politics, we examine the plight of homeless Mexican immigrants, take a view at being Sikh in Queens and describe efforts to help the elderly in Brighton Beach. These and other stories from the Spanish, Russian, Polish, Chinese and Korean language press via our partner, Voices That Must Be Heard.
GOP Convention Stays Silent on Immigration
from Nowy Dziennik / Polish Daily News
John McCain has said that immigrants are "God's children," but the convention that nominated him offered no real discussion on immigrants or immigration reform.
Nothing Known About Palin's Views on Immigration
from El Diario/La Prensa
The Alaska governor and Republican candidate for vice president seems never to have said anything regarding the controversial issue, and neither she nor Sen. John McCain's campaign office responded to questions for information about what her positions might be.
The Republican Convention Through Muslim Eyes
from Iran Times
The rhetoric at the GOP gathering in St. Paul, with its repeated references to Islamic terrorism and radical Islam, demonized millions of law-abiding Muslim Americans, writes award-winning journalist Shahed Amanullah.
An Arab-American View of the Democratic Convention
from Aramaica
With 40 Arab Americans participating as members of convention standing committees or as delegates, Arab Americans hope to play a role in this year's presidential campaign.
American Muslims in Denver
from Bangla Patrika
This year's Democratic Convention in Denver drew a record number of Muslim delegates - 45 - and attracted many Islamic organizations
The View from St. Paul
from Vecherniy New York
A Jewish immigrant from the former Soviet Union visits the Republican National Convention where he watches political demonstrations and interviews Russian senior citizens about who they plan to vote for in November.
African Immigrants Worry About a McCain Administration
from African Abroad
Africans in New York City fear that, as president, Sen. John McCain might involve the U.S. in other wars and divert economic resources needed to fix problems here.
Increasing the Korean Vote
from Korea Times New York
Involvement by Korean voters in this year's presidential campaign is at an all-time-high this year, but many more Koreans need to register and exercise their right to vote.
A Shift in Flushing
from Sing Tao Daily
In local politics, Grace Meng's defeat of incumbent State Assemblymember Ellen Young in the Democratic primary could spell a change in John Liu's domination of Flushing politics.
Sikh Students Face Harassment, Bullying in Schools
from Indian Express
A recent report has found that more than 60 percent of the 400 Sikh students surveyed suffered harassment or violence in city schools. Several students and their parents talk about their experiences.
Willets Point Workers Fight for their Businesses
from El Correo de Queens
People who work or own businesses in this area of Queens slated for massive redevelopment are coming together to protect their economic well-being and resist being pushed out of the district.
Homelessness Increases Among Mexican Immigrants
from Diario de Mexico
Unable to find work, some undocumented Mexicans immigrants recently arrived in New York City are sleeping in the streets and struggling to find food.
City's Bodegas Struggle to Survive
from Hoy
The high costs of goods and produce, along with increasing rent and fuel bills, creates difficulties for New York's small neighborhood stores.
Williamsburg Sees Sharp Rise in Gang Activity
from Super Express
With Latino gang activity on the rise, the 90th precinct, which covers the neighborhood, has recorded the highest increase in criminal activity in the city.
Program Aids Elderly in Brighton Beach
from Novoye Russkoye Slovo
As some of the older people in the Brooklyn neighborhood struggle to pay higher prices on a fixed income, the Shorefront Jewish Community Council helps more than 1,000 people a month.