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Civil Liberties and the Election


While the headlines trumpet dramatic change in federal and New York State government, the experience on the ground for city residents in terms of civil rights issues may be more one of tone than of concrete legislative change. The new more pro-civil rights Democratic majorities in Congress still have a Republican president ready to veto any diminution of the Patriot Act, which civil libertarians find problematic. New Yorkers may soon be able to check a book out of the library without fear that the record will be handed over to the authorities, but there is little evidence that there will be a general relaxation of the heightened restrictions.

A Surveillance Society

The Democratic Congress can put the brakes on further incursions of the Bush administration into civil liberties, but we may discover how difficult it is to recover long-held rights that were cast aside in the name of security. New Yorkers have come to accept a surveillance society where almost every public move is videotaped. Random bag searches by the New York Police Department at subway entrances--instituted after the July 2005 London Underground terrorist attacks--were upheld as constitutional by federal courts here. The New York City Council Speaker, Christine Quinn, a Democrat with roots in progressive Chelsea, defends her recent campaign on nightlife safety as satisfying the concerns of civil libertarians. But some advocates have challenged the constitutionality of being taped and carded every time they go to a club.

Less Than A Civil Rights Agenda In Albany

New York’s new Governor Eliot Spitzer has an overwhelmingly Democratic Assembly, but the State Senate remains in the hands of a Republican majority most of whose members have been cross-endorsed by the Conservative Party.

The only member of the Republican majority to support opening marriage to same-sex couples, Nick Spano from Westchester, looks to be narrowly losing his Senate seat to county legislator Andrea Stewart-Cousins who does not explicitly support such a bill, but has promised to vote for it if it makes it to the floor--which Majority Leader Joseph Bruno has promised it will not. (Unlike Congressional Democrats, the State Senate Democrats did not make much of an effort to win a majority in their chamber with their leader, David Paterson, off running for Lieutenant Governor.)

Civil libertarians may just be waking up to the fact that Governor-elect Spitzer does not share their agendas. Though during the campaign Spitzer announced his support for opening marriage to same-sex couples, he founded the Center for the Community Interest, which, as its Web site indicates, "supports common sense policies that strike a balance between rights and responsibilities, and defends those policies when civil liberties demands are carried to unreasonable conclusions that hurt or endanger others, or erode our shared quality-of-life." He is also a supporter of the death penalty and wants rape suspects tested for HIV despite the objections of public health authorities who counsel rape victims to take drugs to stave off HIV immediately rather than wait for an unreliable test result from someone who may or may not have committed a crime.

The other problem for civil libertarians at the New York State level is that after 12 years as governor, George Pataki has finally managed to install a conservative majority on the state’s high Court of Appeals whose members serve 14-year terms or until they reach age 70. Just as Pataki had to deal with a court dominated by Mario Cuomo picks who were progressive, Spitzer--even if he were inclined toward a more liberal judiciary--will not see a majority until towards the end of his second term should he win one. Spitzer can have more impact on the mid-level Appellate Division where judges sit for five-year terms.

An Unchanged Judiciary

George Bush is still making all the appointments to the federal courts and has two years to solidify a conservative majority on the Supreme Court should one of the current Justices, several of whom are no spring chickens, die or retire. The federal judiciary is one area where the election of a Democrat-controlled Senate can put the brakes on the rightward tilt.

President Bill Clinton, a centrist Democrat to begin with, could not balance the Reagan-Bush, Sr. appointees from the right like Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas with leftist judges because for most of his tenure, Republicans controlled the Senate. Clinton opted for relative moderates such as Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. If the Democrats in the Senate do nothing else, they should be able to thwart the more radically conservative Bush appointees to the bench.

Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-West Side and Brooklyn) will become the new Chair of the House Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on the Constitution and promises at least to get hearings going on civil rights and liberties concerns that the Republican majority refused to.

But civil liberties were not high on the list of issues that Democratic candidates won on November 7th. It remains to be seen whether the new majorities will take bold actions to restore civil liberties compromised under the Republicans or settle for some symbolic victories in their drive for the center that Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton exhorted them to govern from at her re-election party.

Andy Humm, a former member of the City Commission on Human Rights, has been in charge of the civil rights topic page since its inception in 2001. He is co-host of the weekly "Gay USA" on Manhattan Neighborhood Network (34 on Time-Warner; 107 on RCN) on Thursdays at 11 PM.  

Back In The Spotlight


Minutemen at Columbia

The vigilante border patrol group, The Minuteman Project, has received more than its fair share of attention in recent weeks. It all stems from an October 4th incident at Columbia University , where the group's founder, Jim Gilchrist, was invited to speak by the College Republicans.

Soon after Gilchrist began his speech, two Columbia students came onstage and unfurled a banner reading, "No One is Illegal." A tug of war over the banner ensued, and more people rushed onto the stage. Fists started to fly, and the event was shut down.

Unfortunately, a speech that should have been a blip on the media radar has instead catapulted The Minuteman Project into the national media spotlight. Lost in the wake of the spectacle and the debate about each side's free-speech rights is any serious discussion of our nation's immigration policies, which remain utterly dysfunctional and in need of comprehensive reform.

New Yorkers Protest Immigration Policies

On October 21st, hundreds of New Yorkers rallied at Union Square Park and marched to Times Square to call for full legalization, family reunification, an end to detentions and deportations, and equal rights for all workers.

Protesters constructed a Wall of Remembrance to memorialize their loved ones who have suffered under the immigration laws - in prison, in deportation, at the border, or in an abusive workplace - and a procession of mock coffins symbolized deaths at the border and the death of human rights. The protest was organized by New York United for Immigrant Rights.

Nonetheless, on October 26th, President Bush signed into law the Secure Fence Act, authorizing construction of a 700-mile border fence along the U.S./Mexico border. The fence is projected to cost at least $6 billion, though many experts doubt the wall's feasibility. The bill's enactment is widely viewed as election-year posturing by politicians who want to appear tough on illegal immigration.

Immigrants Running for State Office

Several candidates running for State Assembly this year hail from New York 's immigrant communities.

Democrat Alec Brook-Krasny is competing for an assembly seat against Republican Patricia B. Laudano in South Brooklyn 's 46th Assembly District, where the Russian American community has emerged as a potent political force. In the September primaries' tightest race, Brook-Krasny narrowly defeated his rival, Russian-language journalist Ari Kagan, by 94 votes. If he prevails in the general election, Brook-Krasny, who served as founding executive director of the Council of Jewish ?migr? Community Organizations, would become the first Russian immigrant in the country to be elected to a state legislature.

In Assembly District 22 in Flushing, Queens , Democrat Ellen Young, a former top aide to City Councilmember John Liu, will face off against Republican Christopher M. Migliaccio, a 23-year-old law student. Flushing is one of the most diverse communities in the nation, with established Irish and Italian communities living beside large Chinese and Korean immigrant populations. That diversity was reflected in the Democratic primary, where Young narrowly defeated Terrence Park and Julia Harrison by 122 votes. If elected, Young would become the first Asian woman to serve in Albany .

Norman Eng is an attorney and communications coordinator with The New York Immigration Coalition.

 

Good Government Speaks Many Languages


In a city where one in four New Yorkers is still in the process of learning English, City Hall is failing to take its own advice.

In what can only be dubbed a long-overdue acknowledgement of the desperate need for language access services in this city, New York City’s Department of Health released a report this summer, called The Health of Immigrants in New York City, which showed that language barriers prevent immigrant New Yorkers from receiving the same quality of care as their native-born neighbors. One of the report's primary recommendations to help New York’s population stay healthy is to break down language barriers in health care.

The problem of language barriers doesn’t stop here. Ineffective and incomplete language access creates problems that span every area of government services, problems that affect not only immigrants, but all New Yorkers still working to master English. How can the NYPD respond to a 911 call reporting a crime-in-progress from a U.S. citizen who recently arrived from Puerto Rico if the operator cannot find anyone who can speak Spanish? How can the Department of Labor enforce labor law if it is unable to interview the twenty-five percent of all workers in New York City who do not speak English?

And it’s not the immigrants who are the ones dropping the ball; they’re doing all they can to meet municipal government half way. Immigrants want to learn English. A recent study from the Pew Hispanic Institute reveals that a majority of Latino immigrants (as well as a majority of native-born Latinos) think immigrants should learn to speak English. Unfortunately, even immigrants who want to learn English are not able to access affordable English as a Second Language Classes. A report by the New York Immigration Coalition, entitled Eager for English, found that over ninety percent of the need for English classes went unmet. Thousands of immigrants are crowding ESL classes in churches and at community organizations, but city government is simply failing to make an adequate investment in English language classes.

Also, a recent study by the Urban Institute found that when immigrants speak English, they earn more money and they pay more taxes. Government investment in English classes expands opportunity and promotes increased government revenue over time.

City government cannot meet its obligation to keep New Yorkers safe and provide effective services without breaking down language barriers by providing translation and interpretation services.

The fact that one out of every four New Yorkers does not yet speak English is, frankly, shocking. The fact that Mayor Bloomberg’s initial budget sought to reduce funding for English as a Second Language classes is even more so. Even after the City Council negotiated a restoration of some funding for English language classes, the city is still investing only a miniscule fraction of our budget to promote learning English.

To be fair, over the past few years, New York City has responded to grassroots advocacy on this issue by promoting language assistance services at some government agencies. For example, in 2003, Mayor Bloomberg signed the Equal Access to Health and Human Services Law, legislation that requires City Medicaid, Food Stamps and Welfare offices to provide forms and service in six languages. The law has ensured that all New Yorkers who are eligible for these important federal benefits are able to access them. Similarly, this past February, Mayor Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn announced new Chancellor’s Regulations for the city Department of Education that require schools to provide language assistance services that will promote academic achievement and meaningful parental involvement for hundreds of thousands of immigrant families.

Yet, despite these improvements, most city agencies remain wholly unprepared to provide effective service to today’s New Yorkers. For example, a study published this spring by the Urban Justice Center and a coalition of community organizations found that over half (fifty-five percent) of New Yorkers were unable to file complaints about hazardous housing conditions with the Department of Housing and Development (HPD) because of language barriers, or were only able to file complaints with the help of a translator they personally supplied. Language barriers prevented these New Yorkers from holding their landlords accountable for breaking the law.

Responsible government requires a two-pronged approach to ensuring accessible and effective services for all New Yorkers. Expanding language assistance services promotes equitable and effective government. Expanding accessible English classes promotes integration and reduces the need for translation and interpretation services over the long haul.

Andrew Friedman is a fellow of the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy and founding co-director of Make the Road by Walking

 



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