Immigration Task Force
Detroit City Council
Politics
Location unavailable
FOR MEETING ACCESS INFORMATION, CONTACT:
COUNCILMEMBERGABRIELA@DETROITMI.GOV
Check the source website for additional information
Reporting
Edited and summarized by the Detroit - MI Documenters Team
Live reporting by
Amelia Benavides-Colón
In final meeting of the year, members recap legislative wins and prepare for Strategic Plan community engagement.
hey detroit ⛅️ This afternoon I am covering the Detroit City Council’s Immigration Task Force meeting at 3 pm for @DetDocumenters check out our media partners: @BridgeDet313 @chalkbeatDET @freep @metrotimes @MichiganRadio @media_outlier @PlanetDetroit @wdet @wxyzdetroit
09:49 AM Nov 9, 2023 CST
This task force is led by District 6’s @gabysantiromero and focuses on the quality of life of all Detroit’s immigrants some major accomplishments include:
In 2021, the task force became aware of a data breach into Detroit’s ID program. SW Detroit has ~ 8,000-20,000 immigrants - 9,000 of which enrolled in the program pre-hack. For El Central, Gaby told me the program is coming back and this time is safe: elcentralmedia.com/id-cards-for-u…
elcentralmedia.com/id-cards-for-u…
Meeting starts soon and unrelated to today but- a source just sent me this flyer the Task Force is circulating for an employee-only Immigration 101 Workshop next week
The zoom link for todays meeting is sent out by direct request only - and a public agenda is not made available
The zoom room is filling up and today's agenda has been shared
This is the final quarterly meeting of the year and it looks like we have a load to go through
Christine Sauvé is calling the meeting to order at 3:03 p.m. with an introduction She is a co-chair of the Task Force and is the Comm Director for the Michigan Immigration Center We also have co-chair Hayg Oshagan, WSU professor and local activist
Roberto Torres is present representing the Mayor's office. Muthanna Alhanooti is representing the Muslim Legal Fund Nourel-Hoda Eidy and Emma Davis are here with Global Detroit
Roland Hwang is present but driving and unable to unmute Shaffwan Ahmed is with the city of Detroit's immigrant affairs office Carmen is representing the Office of Global MI Santiago-Romero is in a meeting and will be here soon
In total, there are about 20-22 people in the Zoom going through introductions
The participant count is now up to 25, here's everyone and their respective organization
Moving into line item 2 ➡️ Office of Immigrant Affairs Strategic Planning Process: Presentation presented by Nourel-Hoda Eidy
Eidy will be working as a consult on the community engagement piece of the strategic planning
This is being done in response to the Welcoming America audit
Global Detroit will be taking the lead when it comes to community engagement and researching
The research aims to get 300 survey responses and host 12 focus groups. The survey is planned to go live in December
Eidy said efforts are being made to ensure safety protocols will be in place. All surveys will be anonymous, and focus groups will be recorded for the purpose of transcribing
Focus groups will be capped at 15 people per group, hosted in English and there are plans to separate groups by gender, Eidy said. Survey and focus group participants will be compensated.
CORRECTION: Focus groups will be held in each of the six required languages by the strategic plan: Arabic, Spanish, French, Bangla, Pashto or Dari & English Eidy said they are focuses on these languages and not place of origin
Again, surveys are set to launch in December - and community partnerships will be discussed over the next two weeks to determine which events to attend and distribute the survey at
Mapping was done to determine where populations of interest live within the city and what organization exist within each respective neighborhood
Compensation for both the survey and focus group will be a $10 gift card
Arabic language hotspots and identified organizations:
French language hotspots and identified organizations:
Bangla language hotspots and identified organizations:
Pastho or Dari language hotspots and identified organizations:
The survey link will not be made public, so partnerships with organizations and social media recruitment for events will be vital
Sauvé said there is discussion about the survey link being sent via email - she said a final decision will come later
Chidi Nyeche (General Manager of Immigrant Affairs and Economic Inclusion) said he missed Ibo and other West African and Nigerian languages on the list - why is that? He said there are larges groups of these people in the city that are not reflected in the data shown today
Sauvé said the council on immigrant affairs worked to draft the RFP and due to financial constraints, they had to limit the languages to the most commonly spoken in Detroit by number.
Sauvé said there's a route that can be made to translate the survey on a case-by-case basis if there is a translator available and willing to translate the survey into their respective language. She said if Nyche has an org in mind that can do this - that connection can be made
➡️ Moving into line item 4: Update from Councilmember Gabriela Santiago Romero
Pro Tem Andrew Tate just arrived at Santiago-Romero's office for an unexpected visit so she is not present for her update
I do not know the name of the staff member sitting in for Santiago-Romero but she said budget season is coming up at the end of February and funds are being looked at
She said the ITF budget focuses on personnel, resources and events -- and needs to be finalized by Janurary
A listening session will be hosted in mid-December to discuss the city's redistricting freep.com/story/news/pol…
freep.com/story/news/pol…
A ceasefire resolution in regards to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war is in the draft process - conversations are also being held to have interfaith dialogues and talks City residents have been urging their legislators and officials to take a harsher stance freep.com/story/news/loc…
freep.com/story/news/loc…
This is the 2nd year trying to get a sign named in honor of Vincent Chin in the city's Chinatown. All paperwork is in place, more than a dozen conversations have been held - & all was good until ordinance amendments were made that doesn't qualify Vincent Chin for a street sign
Vincent Chin lived in Hamtramck and is buried in Detroit - so Santiago-Romero's office is working to have an exception made. It will be considered next October, and lots of advocacy will be needed because there are very limited slots npr.org/2022/06/19/110…
npr.org/2022/06/19/110…
I'm having trouble finding any news articles relating to the ordinance update but here's what the current city website looks like for Secondary Street Signs: detroitmi.gov/government/boa…
detroitmi.gov/government/boa…
➡️ Line item 4: Update from Office of Immigrant Affairs from Roberto Torres
Torres said his office is reviewing and approving invoices on the Comprehensive Plan - and is looking for funding sources for next year's Entrepreneurship Program
Torres said his office has anticipated an incoming presence of migrants since August 2022 - and rather than a large influx, it's been more of a trickle effect. Torres said partners at Freedom House hit capacity and additional housing support was needed for more than 80 people
Torres said if people go to other housing locations seeking assistance, they have been and will continue to be referred to Freedom House.
Elizabeth Orozco-Vazquez, CEO of Freedom House, said they've been providing basic emergency services to the many new migrant arrivals it is seeing. People are being put up at hotels and given basic health care and legal services
"If this is the direction we are moving in I would like to do it a very different way," Orozco-Vasquez said in regards to the centralized referrals Torres mentioned. Centralized referrals are NOT recommended and she would rather have a new system created for referrals
Ruby Robins of the Michigan Immigrants Rights Center wants to know if the city will continue to support Freedom House if it continues to send all of its migrants there
Orozco-Vazquez said all the other shelter systems across the city are over-capacity and unable to take on any kind of additional services that migrant populations need (like translation, health care, legal services).
Clarisa Piecuch, of the SW Detroit Refugee and Immigrant Center, is asking if Freedom House currently has room for new referrals. "Not today" Orozco-Vasquez said. She said she would come up with a system on a case-by-case basis but there's no referral system in place and no room
ITF members are reporting increased numbers of migrants in the city, Sauvé said. An update on the Detroit ID program: A new RFP is issued to find a new vendor (that won't share data with the federal government) and proposals will be reviewed by ITF over the next month
Sauvé said the first meeting with the vendor selection committee will be next week
Other than that the city's Health Department is preparing for the program launch - which was originally January but now is looking like it might be pushed back
Update on statewide immigrant policies: The Drive SAFE bills are still waiting to go before committee in the House michiganadvance.com/2023/10/06/und…
michiganadvance.com/2023/10/06/und…
Language access bills passed the House and Senate and are now just waiting on the Governor's final signature michiganradio.org/politics-gover…
michiganradio.org/politics-gover…
Other bills ITF has had a role in include mandating FAFSA enrollment for high school seniors: bridgemi.com/talent-educati…
bridgemi.com/talent-educati…
And there's a bill proposing mobile driver's licenses as well but it has also not gone before committee yet mlive.com/politics/2023/…
mlive.com/politics/2023/…
And finally there's a new rent assistance program for refugees that is live and accepting applicants freep.com/story/news/loc…
freep.com/story/news/loc…
These are the notes left, the speaker has to leave the meeting early. It looks like ICE is considering parole for some Venezuelan nationals and the average daily population in MI detention facilities is at 300, lower than pre-COVID
The External Relations working group: Is planning the city employee Immigration 101 Workshop (I posted the flyer above!)
CityWalls has submitted an RFP for an immigration-themed mural The program, under the city's Blight to Beauty initiative, finished its 200th mural this summer: fox2detroit.com/news/from-blig…
fox2detroit.com/news/from-blig…
The group also met with DDOT to discuss immigrant community needs. Sauvé said they gave DDOT the survey results collected at the last quarterly meeting, asking for more language access on routes and scheduling
Finally, the Detroit Our City working group is researching how to create a version of Nashville's My City Academy. The program would be designed to provide Detroit migrants everything they need to navigate their new home safely
Freedom House's Elizabeth Orozco-Vasquez received recognition from the Detroit Tigers for Hispanic Heritage Month Roland Hwang will be recognized by Governor Whitmer
The Islamic Center of Detroit will be hosting a turkey distribution on Nov. 18 and they have extra winter clothing and hygiene kits for those in need
A Detroit citizen is present asking a question. How many migrants have come into the city this year? And what is being done so Detroit doesn't end up like Chicago?
Sauvé said it's difficult to determine a number because there's not central tracking for where all new arrivals go - which is in place to protect civil rights. To that extent, there are refugee resettlement agencies that keep track of some data.
She said generally the city has 36,000 immigrants. He said he's talking specifically in regard to new migrants. He said he doesn't find it fair to bring all these people in while continuing to neglect citizens.
Sauvé said the city is committed to ensuring all residents of the city are safe and protected - although this Task Force is dedicated to the circumstances of immigrants
The public commenter said he's very upset because he's been trying to attend a Reparations Task Force meeting but they've all been canceled. He's upset that progress is being made for immigrants' rights but not for Black residents. This is discrimination, he says.
The audio is cutting out for the public speaker and we are all having trouble hearing him. Sauvé is clarifying that the sole purpose of today's task force is to serve immigrants and refugees. Which is why that's all that is being discussed today.
Sauvé does sound like she would also like to hear from the Reparations Task Force and what comes of their work - and shares the concern the speaker is having with being unable to hear from them. Christine from the Councilmember's office said she would reach out to him
She said the task force is going through a restructuring phase which might be why there's trouble with the meetings and encouraged the resident to reach out to her I can say as a Documenter, we've had crazy issues tracking Reparations mtgs so this commenter's anger is justified
➡️ Adjournment Sauvé adjourned the final Immigration Task Force meeting of 2023 at 4:49 p.m.
This concludes my coverage for the Detroit City Council Immigration Task Force meeting on Nov. 9, 2023 for @DetDocumenters
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Agency Information
Detroit City Council
The Detroit City Council is the legislative body of Detroit, Michigan, United States. The Council is responsible for the creation of local laws—called ordinances. Additionally they pass resolutions, motions, and the proposed city budget. The full-time council is required to meet every business day for at least 10 months of the year, with at least eight of these meetings occurring at a location besides city hall. The council may convene for special meetings at the call of the mayor or at least four members of council. Areas of responsibility for the Budget, Finance and Audit Committee include, Budget, Finance and the Auditor General.
City Council members are elected on the same cycle as the Mayor and will be elected in 2021. Seven members represent the seven council districts, while two members are elected at-large.