Media

Freshman Rep. Adriano Espaillat, 62, a New York Democrat, talks about public housing, baseball, and his grandson’s love of cars. Q: What has surprised you about Congress so far? A: It’s a huge operation. It’s a great huge, large institution and for you to put your arms around it. You have to be very specific and develop a niche in every area you want to excel in, that’s close to your heart, something that’s good for our district, and it’s all local, obviously. Housing is what I’ve chosen. Public housing is very broad. The White House is public housing. The president doesn’t pay rent. He has cold and hot water every day. He doesn’t have any mold in the bathroom or leaks in his pipes. We pay his rent and that’s public housing. We should have a level of commitment to tenants who live in public housing.

House Democrats from Oregon, New York and Virginia proposed a bill last week — the Protecting Sensitive Locations Act — that, if passed, would turn ICE’s current guidelines into a law that actively prohibits officials from conducting arrests, interviews, searches or surveillance at these “sensitive” locations. (It’s unlikely to pass the Republican-controlled House.) Bonamici sponsored the bill with Reps. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.), José E. Serrano (D-N.Y.), Don Beyer (D-Va.) and at least 20 other co-sponsors.

On a Wednesday afternoon in February, a young Latina walked into Rep. Adriano Espaillat’s newly opened Harlem office looking for help. Greeted by two staffers, she explained in halting English that she wanted to know how her grandmother could apply for American citizenship. One of the staffers responded in Spanish, bringing her further into the office and translating for her as another staffer walked her through the immigration forms on the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website. It was constituent services at its finest. And if any office is equipped to help with immigration issues, it’s Espaillat’s – he’s one of the few members of Congress to have gone through the process himself.