Contact: Colleen Roche or Nydia Negron (212) 788-2958
The Mayor was joined by Deputy Mayor Ninfa Segarra, who will direct the program, and Michael Cardozo, President of the New York City Bar Association, which will be an active partner in the initiative.
"This is simply a matter of fairness and compassion," said Mayor Giuliani. "Withholding benefits from legal immigrants who have made vital contributions to this country and whose taxes paid to support the very program from which they are being disqualified, is unfair and cruel.
"Citizenship NYC will lend a helping hand to some of our most vulnerable New Yorkers -- older, disabled immigrants who, in many cases, cannot speak English. This program will get them on the road to citizenship and to better, more secure futures," the Mayor continued.
"While the recently announced federal budget agreement may provide protection for a number of those losing benefits, the only way we can absolutely assure that these legal immigrants are treated fairly in the future is to make them citizens. Citizenship NYC is a permanent effort to assist those who will not benefit from the new federal proposal. We will do everything in our power to make these good neighbors good citizens," the Mayor concluded.
The Mayor appointed Deputy Mayor Ninfa Segarra to oversee the implementation and operation of Citizenship NYC, which is expected to be up and running by July 1997. Day to day administration of the program will be handled by the Department for Youth and Community Development.
"This effort again puts this administration at the forefront of defending the immigrant communities. It demonstrates the Mayor's continued acknowledgment of the vital role immigrants play in our society," Deputy Mayor Segarra said. "I am confident that this effort will identify and serve those at risk of losing benefits. An important component of this effort is to make personal contact with those at-risk to reassure them that the City will assist them in this crisis."
Field offices will be located in Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan and the Bronx, in neighborhoods with high concentrations of at-risk legal immigrants. The Brooklyn field office will also serve Staten Island. Help will be available at every stage of the naturalization process -- in completing and filing the naturalization application, preparing for the INS interview, preparing for civics and English language tests and negotiating the complicated bureaucracy of the INS.
The Mayor also noted that immigrants who are physically unable to travel to field offices will be contacted through phone calls and home visits.
The Mayor thanked Michael Cardozo, President of the New York City Bar Association, for his partnership in this initiative. The City Bar Association, through its volunteer lawyers, will provide legal training to City employees participating in the Citizenship program. The Bar Association will also provide volunteer lawyers to immigrants seeking naturalization at the neighborhood field sites to give advice on immigration matters.
Citizenship NYC will produce a public education campaign to inform legal immigrants about their rights to become naturalized citizens and to encourage them to use the services that will be offered under the program.
To complement these services and public education efforts, the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs will publish a Directory of Services to Immigrants. This valuable referral source will give a comprehensive listing of approximately 300 community-based organizations providing services to the immigrant population in New York City.
Additionally, the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs will distribute information packages describing the recent welfare and immigration law changes and potential remedies that legal immigrants may have to help mitigate the impact of these changes. By the end of May, approximately 600,000 packages will be distributed to the public by 20 city agencies and various community-based organizations. Packages will be available in English, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Haitian Creole, French, Polish and Korean.
Under the recently proposed federal budget agreement, the federal government appears to have committed to restoring SSI benefits to a substantial percentage of the approximately 70,000 legal immigrants at risk of losing SSI benefits. Preliminary estimates from the U.S. Social Services Administration indicate that while 56,000 disabled and elderly disabled legal immigrants would be covered, 14,000 elderly immigrants would not. The proposed federal agreement does not restore Food Stamp benefits and does not appear to provide benefits for many legal immigrants who arrived in the country after August 22, 1996.