Legislators push to protect privacy of immigrants
By: Ricardo Kaulessar
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey
..... State legislators from Bergen County hope their latest effort to protect the privacy of immigrants seeking public services will be more successful than their previous one. So do the immigrants.
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Senators Gordon Johnson and Assemblywoman Ellen Park, both Democrats from the 27th District, joined immigrate advocates at a press conference in Newark on Wednesday [10/09/2024] to discuss the Immigrant Trust Ac, sponsored by Johnson.
..... The legislation, introduce last week [10/03/2024] by Johnson in the Senate as S3672, would limit New Jersey state and local agencies form sharing personal information with the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, and would ensure the separation between local law enforcement and federal immigration enforcement.
..... One of the major concerns of immigrants, particularly those who are undocumented, and their allies is that any attempt to seek help from authorities on such matters as reporting a crime or applying for a social service will lead to their being deported if they give their personal information.
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Ana Vasquez, a community organizer with Morris County-based immigrant services organization Wind of the spirit who immigrated to the U.S. from El Salvador in 2007, recalled through tears (with help from a translator) that she feared speaking to authorities after she and several other fellow undocumented immigrants suffered sexual abuse from a co-worker in her New Jersey factory job. The abuse stopped when on of them reported the co-worker to an attorney.
..... "Out of fear of not having our papers, one believes that they can't do anything. the immigrant who is afraid will continue begin afraid," Vasquez said during the press conference held at the Newark office of the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice.
..... Cristian Moreno-Rodriquez, director of the Atlantic City-based immigrant rights group el Pueblo Unido, teared up when remembering as a child seeing his mother being mugged and not being able to call the police because she was afraid due to her undocumented status.
..... He said the new legislation is crucial at a time, when immigrants are being vilified by elected officials.
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"We won't stop until every single immigrant in New Jersey feels comfortable sassing for help, asking for resources for their family, and nobody ever goes through what we had to go through," Moreno-Rodriguez said.
..... However, seeing this new legislation eventually become law is not assured, in light of the previous effort by state Democrats to protect immigrants.
..... S512, also known as the New Jersey Values Act, was introduced in January 2022 in the Senate and Assembly and would have established "certain law enforcement and privacy procedures" for immigrations, including prohibiting agencies from sharing personal information with ICE and removing the term "allies" from state documents and replacing it with "non-citizen." Johnson was a co-sponsor of the Senate version of the bill, and Park was a co-sponsor of the Assembly version.
..... It was referred for consideration to the Senate Judiciary Committee in June 2022 but was not advanced.
..... Johnson said he is hopeful that the second time will be the charm for this legislation, considering how immigrants are being targeted by politicians.
..... "Now is the time to get this through our legislature and convince my colleagues in both houses that this is something that has to get through and get to the governor's desk, said Johnson, who represents his home city of Englewood along with several other Bergen municipalities.
..... When asked by a NorthJersey.com reporter if Johnson has gotten assurances from Democrats and Republicans in both the Senate and Assembly that they will approve the bill when it comes up for a vote, he said he has not but is optimistic that he will get those votes.
..... Park, an Englewood Cliffs, resident whose parents are immigrates from South Korea, joined in by saying she is hopeful the bill will be passed because "there's definitely an urgency this time around."