05/27/2023
A quick, preliminary comment on the “emergency order” “migrant ban” recently issued by the Supervisor of the Town of Mount Pleasanthttps://www.mtpleasantny.com/sites/g/files/vyhlif4741/f/alerts/town_of_mt._pleasant_state_of_emergency_5.26.2023.pdf :
I just found the text of the Mount Pleasant emergency order on its website. First basic problem: as far as I can see, it does not contain a definition, and there is no general legal definition, of “migrants or asylum seekers.” Who is a “migrant”? If the noncitizen grandmother of someone who lives in Mount Pleasant has received lawful permanent residence (a “green card”) to live and work lawfully in the United States, and is coming to live with the family from her current home in Oshkosh, Wisconsin -- or if that grandmother is coming to visit the family on a temporary visa for the holidays -- is that person a “migrant” under this Order? This Order says that “no person” . . . “may make contracts with persons” . . . “doing business within the Town to transport migrants or asylum seekers to locations in the Town for any length of time without the express written permission of the Town Supervisor.” So if a Town resident calls an Uber to pick up his grandmother at the airport, he could be violating this Order unless he first gets the written permission of the Supervisor?
Similarly, numerous “asylum seekers” -- again, does that mean someone who has already filed an application for asylum, specifically, with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services agency? Does that mean someone who is in the process of preparing such an application? Thinking about applying for asylum? Seeking information about eligibility for asylum? – anyway, many people who might be called “asylum seekers” are completely financially independent and self-sufficient, and may be living in or visiting the Town of Mount Pleasant without any contact with or action by the City of New York or any other municipal government. This Order apparently applies to them. These same people may already have lawful immigration status within the United States, such as for example Temporary Protected Status or Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, quite independent of whether they may also be seeking or considering seeking asylum protection. This Order apparently applies to them, as well.
Just pointing out some of the problems that arise when government officials who may not be well-informed about our extremely and unnecessarily complex immigration law start legislating or issuing orders on this topic. Let’s remember that this entire “crisis” has been manufactured over a very long time, during the past thirty years at least, by a refusal of members of Congress, largely Republicans, to engage in meaningful reform of our grossly outdated and dysfunctional immigration law, even though the American public very much favors comprehensive immigration reform. It is not surprising that government officials and law-makers and the general public do not know about and understand the structure and operation of our immigration system because unfortunately, teaching about this topic is not part of the curriculum of most high schools or other mandatory education programs, and otherwise there is little opportunity for people to learn about it. For that matter, most lawyers know very little about our immigration law. There is also a great deal of mythology and stereotyping about the very broad category of “immigrants”, such as the idea that immigrants are the source of additional criminal activity, when most responsible studies show that the opposite is true: rates of crime committed by noncitizens are by and large substantially lower than the rate of crimes committed by U.S. citizens. See, e.g.,
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/undocumented-immigrants-are-half-as-likely-to-be-arrested-for-violent-crimes-as-u-s-born-citizens/
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2014704117 or https://www.ojp.gov/library/publications/comparing-crime-rates-between-undocumented-immigrants-legal-immigrants-and
https://www.politifact.com/article/2022/sep/06/surprising-number-americans-believe-these-false-cl/
https://www.mtpleasantny.com/sites/g/files/vyhlif4741/f/alerts/town_of_mt._pleasant_state_of_emergency_5.26.2023.pdf
