My name is Karissma Fernandez. I work in Proyecto Faro’s Legal Empowerment Program. Every day, I support immigrants to fill out their applications for asylum and other programs available through the U.S. immigration system. I help them understand the immigration process so they can help themselves and their families.
Part of applying for asylum requires they share their stories of what brought them to the US. They retell their traumatic stories on their applications, to us, their attorneys, immigration judges. They have to explain why they left their homes, communities, and countries they love dearly. They have to explain why they uprooted themselves, their children, leaving behind loved ones, neighborhoods, churches, and everything they know to come to a new country with new customs and a new language. I hear every day why immigrants had to make the impossible decision because they could not survive at home. There’s no work. There’s no food. There’s gang violence and death threats. They face extortion and sexual assault. They are forced to choose to make a journey that might itself be fatal. So, I welcome them every time they come into our office. I tell them I’m glad they’re now part of our community in Rockland.
Every day, I hear these stories of trauma, violence, and pain. But I also hear stories of survival, of resilience, of people putting their family above all else, working multiple jobs to put food on the table and pay rent. Helping each other by delivering boxes of food through our mutual aid food program to families too scared to leave home or people who are too sick to get out of bed. I hear parents’ dreams of their children graduating from high school and college, studying to get degrees to lead to good jobs, and being able to contribute to the United States.
They are doing what many of our parents, grandparents and great grandparents felt they had to do so that their children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren could lead better lives.
All of the immigrants we work with are following the rules. They are law abiding. Up until the Trump administration made it impossible for them to pay taxes, many applied for tax IDs so they could contribute to their communities and to the nation. But they mostly do not reap the benefits of these taxes. They give but they do not get back. They do this because they believe in, respect, and want to participate in the strengthening of our nation.
It is unfathomable for many who are here on humanitarian parole to find a way to survive if they are forced to go back to their countries. Some have no home left. Some of them have no family or community left behind because they were run out of town or killed. Some don’t have any way to work or grow food. There are no schools for their children.
We cannot stand by and let this happen to the children who attend our Rockland public schools. To our neighbors, to our congregation members. To the people who work in our local stores and businesses. To the people who care for our homes, our children, and our elderly. I stand here to tell you that Proyecto Faro will not stand by and let this happen. And we invite everyone in Rockland to stand with all of us here, to urge that President Trump safeguard the CHNV humanitarian parole program. We urge that he stop the ICE raids. We want an immigration system that is humane, an immigration system that recognizes that immigrants contribute so much to our country.
We have a choice: We can be welcoming to our newcomers and act humanely or we can punish them, create fear, and inflict harm. What choice will we as a community make?
Thank you.