On August 18, 2025, Working Families Party, Make the Road Action, Proyecto Faro, Indivisible held a press conference outside of US Congressional Representative Mike Lawler’s office in Pearl River to call for him to act on behalf of the many detained immigrants and their ruptured families in NY17 district. Below is the statement PF Co-Executive Director Liz Roberts read.
Proyecto Faro, an immigrant-led organization that provides legal and material support and leadership development, and advocates and organizes for the rights of all of immigrants in our county, is already seeing tremendous and steadily worsening attacks on our immigrant community members in Rockland. But we work with hundreds of ally leaders from dozens of congregations and organizations who represent thousands of Rocklanders who know this county functions and thrives because of immigrants. These thousands stand in solidarity with us against xenophobia and white nationalism.
Trump and the entire ruling class have always divided the poor and working class by peddling white supremacy as a distraction from and a cover up for their wealth transferring policies and practices. And we are currently experiencing the largest of these wealth transfers to the rich in this country’s history. Trump and his ilk foster divisions among those with the least by selling their MAGA base a crop of hateful lies criminalizing immigrants and people of color. And foot soldiers like Congress Member Mike Lawler are more than happy to build their own political careers by voting on MAGA policies.
Trump’s anti-immigration agenda, wholeheartedly supported by legislators like Lawler amounts to an ethnic cleansing campaign, attempting to rid the U.S. of its Black and Brown immigrants. With the stripping away of TPS, CHNV and other parole programs, many hard-working immigrants are being hunted and kidnapped from their homes, places of work, and off the streets.
We have already seen high school students abducted. Last week ICE arrested 6 people who were waiting for an honest day’s work at day laborer pick up sites in Spring Valley. Over the past several weeks, ICE officers have been visibly present near our office and have detained individuals shortly after leaving our building. People are being arrested when they go to their ICE or parole check ins and when they go into the city for their immigration appointments. ICE is setting up checkpoints here and is staging its activities outside of the Spring Valley police department and village court. We are seeing parents making impossible decisions to try to keep their children safe.
We serve hundreds of immigrants in our legal empowerment program. Due to the aggressive and increasing presence of ICE in our communities, we now have to change how we work with our clients. They previously could come in and have face to face support, guidance, and reassurance. We now fear we’re putting them at greater risk if they come to our offices. We have to sacrifice this more personal way of working with clients. To keep people safe, we have to move much of our legal work online. This is also less efficient and will likely reduce the number of cases we can handle. For those whose cases involve domestic violence or sexual assault, the sensitive nature of their cases requires they be handled in person. But this puts them at risk of arrest.
How can we reassure those playing by the rules when the unfolding immigration policies and practices are so lawless and draconian? When ICE takes people without signed judicial warrants, and racially profiles and arrests those for whom there are no orders? When the current administration is tearing apart families, disappearing loved ones into detention centers and brutal prisons, to punish immigrants who did everything right, who followed the rules of our immigration system?
Our terrified immigrant neighbors are now hiding in their homes, afraid to get groceries, or pick up food boxes from us. Afraid to come out and report crimes. This is a living nightmare for thousands of immigrants, many of whom are here seeking asylum. These are our volunteers, neighbors, family members, and friends. They are children who were brought here to live safely and get an education. They are the people who work difficult, necessary jobs that American citizens don’t want and keep our robust landscaping, construction, and service industries going. They enable our local economy to not just function but to thrive. In 2022, immigrants paid $100 billion in federal, state and local taxes.
The weaponization of the immigration system is targeting an already traumatized population and ruining lives immigrants painstakingly rebuilt with blood, sweat, and tears. Xenophobic and racist policy is being enacted to empty our community of those who contribute to it enormously and make it a materially and culturally rich place to live. If these kidnappings are allowed to continue we are going to see a devastating material and psychological impact on thousands of human beings and the destruction of our local economy.
Last month, after Konbit Neg Lakay led several groups in a pressure campaign, Lawler did secure the release of Alan Pierre, a Spring Valley HS student. We know Lawler will tout this to immigrants who can vote as an example of his caring about their communities and he will use it as a way of distracting from the fact that his support for these policies is what landed this young person in detention in the first place. We call on Rep. Lawler to stand up for all immigrant families. We urge him work for the release of all detained Rockland residents, to prevent the separation of children and parents, and to speak honestly about and work to reverse laws that were never about crime reduction. We urge Rep Lawler to repeal these legal changes which are a spectacle of intimidation and violence designed to appeal to racist voters and are tearing apart his constituents’ lives.
Proyecto Faro is going to continue to resist these inhumane policies and build stronger coalitions with faith and secular groups to protect immigrants. We will continue to push our representatives to stand for justice and against authoritarian measures that are disappearing our neighbors. And we are going to continue to push our lawmakers to extend protections or provide pathways to lawful status for those affected by the termination of several parole programs, especially those who have already begun asylum or family-based processes. We need a humanitarian parole program or other legal mechanisms specifically for children and families. Solutions must prioritize child welfare, family unity, and long-term stability for those fleeing violence and instability.
The conditions from which many flee to come to the US, including those from Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela, and Nicaragua are so often very grave due directly to the destructive policies and practices of the US, with its decades of aggressive military and economic interventions focused on protecting US interests and undermining left governments. So, the local and the global cannot be addressed separately.
Because of this, and because there is an enormous need to stop the wars, colonialism, and human-made economic, political, and environmental catastrophes that produce refugees and migrants, we must also demand an end to the tyrannical steps Trump and his MAGA adherents are taking to silence political dissent, quash the first amendment, and dispense with due process.
Unity, solidarity, and refusal are the only real tools we have. Fortunately, they are the most useful tools against a complete consolidation between capital and the state, which is fascism. Unity, solidarity, and refusal are our best tools against what Hannah Arendt called the banality of evil. Building a broad, unified resistance movement across difference is our only meaningful way out of this. Proyecto Faro will continue to organize our base and our partners in this work to achieve the pluralistic, safe, and just community we need.