Immigrants

After a spirited debate, the council approved the measure to allow about 900,000 non-citizen New Yorkers to vote in city elections.

“The fact that this fund has been depleted barely two months after it first opened is a testament to how badly New Yorkers need this lifeline."

The arrests come as immigration attorneys allege that ICE has “disappeared” its clients from the jail.

The term "alien" is used to describe undocumented immigrants or noncitizens six times in the New York City Charter.

Immigrant groups are pressing Governor Andrew Cuomo for immediate action, including a rent freeze and a billionaire tax to create a $3.5 billion fund to aid excluded workers such as undocumented immigrants.

"If you're poor or out of work and you can't even pay your rent right now, how are you going to be able to afford the cost of burying a loved one?"

"They almost had to go out of their way to exclude immigrant families and mixed status families."

The move came after desperate pleas from immigration judges and from the government lawyers who prosecute immigrants

For many detainees, "It feels like lock-down, it feels like solitary," according to an attorney.

"If business drops a lot, a lot, a lot, we're gonna close it," said one food vendor.

“If they can’t take care of us like they’re supposed to, do something else—send me to another jail, or give me my freedom and I can go myself to the hospital.”

Booker likely hopes his new position on immigration detention will set him apart in the crowded Democratic presidential field.