In the News

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS-INWOOD, NY — Upper Manhattan officials and advocates rallied in front of a Washington Heights school this week to denounce United States Customs and Border Protection for attempting to intimidate community members. The federal agency drummed up panic in the immigrant neighborhood last week when an agent parked his truck on the sidewalk in front of PS 153 on West 169th Street and Broadway. People held up signs at Monday's rally in front of the school reading "we are all immigrants," and "safe families, safe schools." Congressman Adriano Espaillat said that locations such as schools and places of worship should be respected by immigration authorities.

The hot button politician blowing up everyone’s Twitter feeds is the one and only AOC (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez). While she may be the youngest, most progressive Congresswoman on record, there is another Latino breaking records that you should have on your radar. Adriano Espaillat is a Dominican-born American politician representing New York’s 13th congressional district. And, he’s the first formerly undocumented immigrant to ever serve in Congress as well as the first Dominican to ever serve in Congress. He’s not just trying to fit in and make any power grabs either. He’s putting everything on the line to fearlessly serve the immigrant community. Espaillat isn’t abandoning his community and has made them his entire platform. Espaillat has led the Democrat party to introduce an Immigration Package to the floor. Espaillat came to the U.S. as a child with his family. The Espaillats had to live as undocumented until their green card applications were approved a full year later. Espaillat was only 11 years old when this happened. Espaillat led the initial effort to Impeach Trump. When Verizon and DirectTV dropped Televisión Dominicana, Espaillat called on the companies to change course.

An almost forgotten part of history has now been permanently enshrined on the campus of Bronx Community College in University Heights. Congressman Adriano Espaillat joined Councilman Fernando Cabrera in unveiling the ‘World War II Dominican Veterans Monument,’ on Friday, November 2. Beneath a thick canopy of clouds, leaders from the Bronx and the Dominican Republic hailed the new addition to the New York City landscape and the 351 heroes whose names are etched into its stone façade. Across the United States, there has never been a tribute to the courageous American servicemen and servicewomen of Dominican heritage who fought for the freedom of their country and the world during World War II. The names inscribed on the monument, including a Tuskegee Airman and a bronze and silver star winner, were identified through a joint effort between Bronx Community College and the Dominican Studies Institute, researched by a CUNY Dominican Studies Project called ‘Dominicans in New York.’

Bronx elected officials welcomed 10 diplomatic officials from the Dominican Republic at the Nov. 2 grand opening of the nation’s first monument for Dominican veterans of World War II. The monument, funded in part by $400,000 in state and local funding secured by Councilman Fernando Cabrera, is located on the campus of Bronx Community College (BCC) in University Heights.

“More than 300 Dominican men and women risked and sacrificed their lives for the United States during World War II,” Cabrera, who is part Dominican, said. “These soldiers have been largely left out of U.S. history and I believed their rightful and public recognition was long past due.”

NUEVA YORK.- El congresista dominicano que representa el distrito 13 de Nueva York, calificó ayer martes al presidente Donald Trump como “el epítome de la deshumanización”, por la amenaza del mandatario en twitter, de que va a cortar todas las ayudas a Honduras si el Gobierno de ese país, no detiene una caravana de miles de inmigrantes que marcha hacia la frontera de México y Estados Unidos, para buscar asilo y compasión.

A new report examining the racial diversity among top staff of the U.S. House of Representatives finds that personnel levels fall “woefully short” of representing the racial diversity of the nation.

Impeachment has moved to the center of the midterm debate following the remarkable assertion from Michael Cohen that President Trump orchestrated illegal hush-money payments through his former personal attorney to silence two women ahead of the 2016 elections. The developments are leading to a scramble by House Democratic leaders to tamp down talk of impeaching Trump, even as Republicans seek to make protecting Trump a bigger part of their own midterm message.

I am deeply concerned following last week’s decision by the New York City Council to approve the plan to rezone Inwood, a plan that will have a long-term devastating impact on the future of the community by potentially uprooting residents, families, and family-owned businesses that call Inwood home.