NEW YORK – It's a message to Congress about the need for immigration reform, and it is being delivered by New Yorkers who say they won't be eating for 24 hours.
Dr. Hafiz Rehman, a member of the Human Rights Commission for Suffolk County, is among the 21 Long Islanders who are joining the fast with others, who already have fasted for 21 days in an effort to get the Republican-controlled House to take action on immigration reform.
"There are 11 million people who are looking for some kind of pathway to citizenship,” he says. “Muslims, Jews, Christians. So, we are in solidarity – we are going to be fasting."
Rehman will be among those meeting news reporters today at a Long Island briefing to update New Yorkers on why they believe comprehensive immigration reform remains a pressing issue.
Also joining in the fast will be Carlos Reyes, a member of Make the Road New York, who says he has been waiting for nearly two decades for lawmakers to take action.
"I've been waiting for 19 years,” he says. “I still cannot go out and see my family, because I am not a resident of this country. And a lot of my friends, they don't even have any documents to work, so they are living in the shadows."
Rehman says even while legislative fixes have been stalled, plenty of people who considered themselves New Yorkers have been deported.
"People are still being deported,” he stresses. “People are held in custody for three months, four months, not even allowed to see their families before they are put on the plane. So, there is a human part to this whole story."
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Nearly one in four Americans is an immigrant or the child of an immigrant but President Donald Trump has promised to shrink those numbers through arrests and mass deportations, which have already begun.
The actions have stoked fear among immigrants and worry about how it will affect the economy.
Loren Collingwood, associate professor of political science at the University of New Mexico, is concerned massive sweeps could mistakenly target families who've been in the Southwest for more than 500 years.
"In New Mexico, we have three, four, five generations but look like they did yard work that day, an ICE official could be like, 'Oh, they're an undocumented immigrant, let's go detain them,'" Collingwood said. "That's one of the main challenges with these types of policies and laws."
There are 75 million immigrants in America, including 200,000 in New Mexico, or roughly one in 10 residents. Many fill jobs in construction, restaurants, health care, agriculture and more, while business owners generate $12 billion of economic output annually, according to New Mexico Voices for Children.
Trump has painted immigrants as criminals and worse but a 40-year incarceration project by Stanford University shows immigrants are 60% less likely to be incarcerated than those born in the U.S.
Collingwood said nonetheless, threats and dehumanization often are enough to drive immigrants out, with or without a government crackdown.
"The reality is, it costs so much money to do this," Collingwood pointed out. "So a lot of the posturing is designed at self-deportation and people have written books about this, that a lot of deportations that occur in the United States are really just immigrant populations, 'I'm just going to go back to wherever my country of origin is.'"
A Gallup poll found the percentage of U.S. adults who want to see a decrease in immigration rose to 55% in 2024, compared to 41% the year before.
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Immigration and deportation are key topics in this week's Tennessee legislative session, and a local nonprofit group is helping residents prepare for possible deportation.
Nationwide, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement reports more than 900 arrests since the Trump administration has started following through on its promise of a "mass deportation."
Luis Mata, a communications officer for the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, called for immigration reform while criticizing President Donald Trump's immigration executive order that expands detention. He added that they are helping Tennessee's 400,000 immigrants prepare, not panic.
"Communities across the state are prepared to protect ourselves and our families," he said, "and we're doing that through continuing to build our robust network of organizations, community leaders, community members, who are ready to step up and make sure that we all have what we need to build the good life and to live up to Tennessee values."
Gov. Bill Lee has proposed strengthening immigration enforcement across Tennessee by creating a new division within the Department of Safety, supporting local law enforcement participation in federal programs and considering state-issued IDs.
Mata argued that mass deportation would lead to labor shortages and hurt businesses already struggling to build a reliable workforce.
"Immigrants are deeply rooted in Tennessee and our communities," he said. "We are part of not just the social and cultural fabric of the state and country, but equally importantly, we are part of the fabric that makes our economy thrive."
The Trump administration has issued an executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship for children of illegal immigrants born in the United States. Several states are suing over the issue; Tennessee isn't one of them.
Mata said eliminating birthright citizenship would violate the Constitution.
"Birthright citizenship has been protected by the 14th Amendment for over 150 years," he said. "And what it is, it's a simple standard of determining who is American without the color of your skin, without ancestry, racialized citizenship is a thing of the past, and should remain that way."
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A new report found New York State will face massive economic and fiscal effects from mass deportations.
The report showed industries such as hospitality, child care, farming and construction will face workforce shortages due to mass deportations. It noted New York will lose out on more than $3 billion in taxes from undocumented immigrants.
David Dyssegaard Kallick, director of the Immigration Research Initiative, said there are ways the state can reduce the harsh impacts.
"The state doesn't need to be part of the enforcement of federal immigration laws," Kallick pointed out. "It's very important for the state to say, 'We're not going to allow city and state law enforcement agents to get drawn into this process of detaining people for immigration or turning people over to ICE and immigration authorities.'"
Although President Donald Trump is determined to carry out mass deportations, there has been little evidence of their benefits. The report indicated giving undocumented immigrants a path to legal status would increase local and state tax revenue by $900 million. Another effect mass deportations would have is population loss for upstate New York municipalities, reversing economic gains made in recent years.
Carrying out mass deportations may present logistic challenges but even losing a small portion of New York's undocumented population comes with economic consequences, such as higher living costs for all New Yorkers.
Emily Eisner, chief economist at the Fiscal Policy Institute, said the state cannot handle losing so many workers.
"We might see fewer child care facilities offering fewer spots for kids, or we might see reductions in how many older adults or disabled adults can get home health care," Eisner emphasized. "Which will then place burden on family members in both of those cases."
She added the construction industry would face similar challenges with costs rising and fewer projects being completed and mass deportations would only exacerbate the state's ongoing housing and child care shortages.
Small businesses would be affected too, because 1 million undocumented immigrants nationally run businesses, which generated more than $27 billion in 2022.
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