With less than three weeks until the 2024 Election Day, Ithaca’s immigrant communities and local organizations expressed concerns over how the inflammatory national rhetoric around immigrants and the outcome of the presidential election will affect the perception and safety of immigrants in Ithaca.
Ithaca declared itself as a sanctuary city in 2017, placing restrictions on when and how the Ithaca Police Department can respond to federal requests related to undocumented people residing in the city. Alongside these policies, local non-profits and community organizations provide critical support services to immigrants.
Open Doors English
Open Doors English, an English as a second language school for adults, held a gathering after classes on Oct. 10 to issue a statement condemning former president Donald Trump’s comments on immigrants and reaffirming the organization’s mission to provide a safe space for students.
The statement was issued following Trump falsely claiming that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, had eaten their neighbor’s pets.
At the gathering, the instructors read the statement and shared the translation of the statement in 25 different languages with the students.
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“Recently, former president Trump and others have said some terrible things about immigrants,” the statement read. “We at Open Doors English celebrate all of our students! We know the sacrifices you made to come here. We see how hard you work. You bring a richness to our lives.”
Hilary Boyer, the co-director and student services coordinator of Open Doors English, said the message resonated deeply with students.
“A lot of students came up to us afterwards and gave us hugs and said how much they appreciated it,” Boyer said. “So I think in a personal way, a lot of our students are feeling that uncertainty, fear and [discomfort] as immigrants in the community.”
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Immigration in the 2024 Presidential Election
Immigration has emerged as one of the top issues for voters in the 2024 election, with 61 percent of voters citing it as “very important” to their vote — a 13-point increase from the 2022 midterms.
Prof. Jaclyn Kelley-Widmer, law, outlined how election outcomes could impact immigration policies and her clinic’s work. Kelley-Widmer, the founder and director of the Immigration Law and Advocacy clinic at the Law School explained that her clinic provides legal services for undocumented individuals and those protected under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals communities within Ithaca and broader upstate New York community.
The clinic also represents asylum seekers in court and assists detained immigrants in securing their release from detention or applying for immigration relief.
“Depending on the outcome of the election, we’ll see really different policies for immigration going forward,” Kelley-Widmer said. “Of course, we know what a Trump presidency would look like, at least to some degree, because we’ve already had a Trump presidency and there were really immediate and detrimental policies put in place that undermined the rights of immigrants.”
Kelley-Widmer further explained how a potential Harris presidency would impact immigrant communities in the US.
“Under [the] Harris administration, considering that she’s part of the administration that put forth the asylum ban at the border, I think we will continue to see restrictions on asylum,” Kelley-Widmer explained. “[But] I also see the Harris administration trying to take care of immigrant communities that are already present in the United States.”
Kelley-Widmer specifically explained how the Biden administration’s efforts to expand legal protections for undocumented immigrants married to U.S. citizens and streamline authorizations of work visas for DACA recipients who earned a degree in higher education has already had “a big impact on [her] clients in a positive way.”
Immigrants in Ithaca
Shahad Kareem, an immigrant from Iraq who fled with her husband 13 years ago, hopes that the election outcomes will not change Ithaca’s commitment to providing a safe and welcoming space for immigrants.
“Whomever the candidate is, people should understand that negative comments regarding immigrants could make Ithaca go from the welcoming atmosphere that Ithaca is to a negative place for immigrants,” Kareem wrote in a text to The Sun.
For Jose Tzul, who immigrated from Guatemala 10 years ago to look for a better life for himself and his son, the current political rhetoric around immigrants is “nothing new.”
“In my case, that’s happened every four years. Someone needs to blame someone,” Tzul said. “In this case, they are using immigrants.”
Despite the political tensions, Tzul believes Ithaca’s support for immigrants will remain strong.
“I’m sure people will support our community, [no matter] what will happen,” Tzul said. “Organizations like our school and [others] in Ithaca, I’m sure they won’t leave our community, they will support [us].”