Attorneys with three publicly funded legal services providers for low-income New Yorkers went on strike Friday morning after failing to reach an agreement with management on raises.
Staff at the Bronx Defenders, the Center for Appellate Litigation and the Office of the Appellate Defender join the roughly 400 attorneys and legal staff across four other nonprofit organizations already on the picket line seeking better pay and working conditions, bringing the total number of strikers to more than 700.
They are represented by the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys – UAW Local 2325, which along with its parent union, the United Auto Workers, represents a majority of legal services workers in New York City representing defendants in immigration, criminal, housing and family courts.
The work stoppage at Bronx Defenders has the potential to “shut down” arraignments and intake in Bronx criminal, housing and family courts, said Sophia Gurulé, an ALAA Local 2325 trustee who formerly worked at the organization.
It’s the first strike ever by workers at that organization, and the first by attorneys representing indigent criminal defendants anywhere in the city since 1994, when then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani cancelled the city’s contract with the Legal Aid Society and new organizations formed to provide the services — including Bronx Defenders.
The main sticking point, according to Gurulé, is that management is refusing to meet the union’s demand of a $68,500 salary floor for non-attorney staff, including paralegals, interpreters and administrative assistants.
“People give their all to this work, whether it’s in family defense or criminal defense. And the fact that people can’t get a living salary needs to stop,” said Gurulé. “The only way to stop it is with organized people.”
In a statement, Bronx Defenders executive director Juval O. Scott said management’s latest offer lifts the salaries of the lowest-paid staff by 11.4% and met the union’s salary demands for those with nine or more years of experience.
“But the union’s latest counterproposal requires an additional $600,000 that we just don’t have without additional City funding,” wrote Scott. “With valid concerns around workload and maintaining the highest quality services for the people we represent, we cannot responsibly offer more.”
The union’s bargaining committee informed its members of the strike in a notice posted to its WhatsApp channel Thursday afternoon after it walked out of negotiations with management.
A spokesperson for Bronx Defenders said non-union managers and supervisors will handle case loads during the strike.
The attorneys bargain directly with their private employers, but the city has a unique stake in the negotiations, because it provides funding to the legal services organizations. Bronx Defenders currently has nearly $197 million in city legal services contracts, according to the city comptroller’s Checkbook NYC database.
“We implore the union and the City, both, to support us in seeking a swift resolution,” said Scott, Bronx Defenders’ executive director.
Deanna Logan, the director of the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice, said in a statement that despite not being a party to the negotiations, the city has taken steps to mitigate the effects of the strike.
“We are specifically mitigating potential disruptions by working with our partners to get supervisors and directors to pick up cases, calling on our deep bench of private attorneys to assist, and working closely with criminal and family courts to ensure that nobody is left without representation,” said Logan.
Legal workers at CAMBA, New York Legal Assistance Group, Goddard-Riverside Law Project and Urban Justice Center went on strike earlier this month.
Other ALAA shops were able to avert a strike on Friday. Attorneys at Appellate Advocates reached a tentative agreement on Thursday evening, and unionized staff at the Legal Aid Society — the ALAA’s largest chapterat roughly 1,100 members — agreed to extend their strike deadline to July 25 after bargaining through the night until early Friday.
Though the specific demands vary among the organizations, they generally seek raises, higher salary minimums for attorneys and other staff, and more affordable health care premiums. Some are also seeking a reduced case load cap per attorney to combat burnout and high turnover.
Some of the organizations have told staff that they cannot meet the union’s pay demands because of budget constraints, even with funds included in the latest municipal budget deal reached by the City Council and the Adams administration that doubled spending for immigration legal services and included funding totaling $30 million for housing and criminal defense.
The Trump federal spending bill — which allocates an unprecedented $170 billion for immigration enforcement and slashes funding the city relies on for housing, health care and other services — threatens to intensify the need for legal representation while shrinking city government resources.
The ALAA has called on management to join in its demands of additional $25 to $30 million funding from the Adams administration for legal services for the next year.
“We don’t want to have to go on strike to do this. We think it’s a no brainer. It’s pennies for the city, it’s pennies for [management],” said Gurulé. “Why don’t they get their own salaries in order? Why don’t they make cuts on their end? Why not prioritize that?”
Our nonprofit newsroom relies on donations from readers to sustain our local reporting and keep it free for all New Yorkers. Donate to THE CITY today.
A city fire marshal used FDNY’s access to a facial recognition software to help NYPD detectives identify a pro-Palestinian protester at Columbia University, circumventing policies that tightly restrict the Police Department’s use of the technology.
Details of the arrangement emerged in a recent decision by a Manhattan criminal court judge and in a lawsuit seeking information from the FDNY filed this month by the Legal Aid Society, which represented the protester, Zuhdi Ahmed, now a 21-year-old pre-med CUNY student going into his senior year of college.
Police identified Ahmed after searching for a young man accused of hurling what they said was a rock at a pro-Israeli protester during an April 2024 skirmish at Columbia. Thanks to the FDNY’s assistance and its use of Clearview AI software, the police were able to identify Ahmed.
The FDNY began using Clearview AI in December 2022 and has an annual contract with the company, according to a spokesperson.
The fire marshal also accessed documents from the Department of Motor Vehicles that are typically unavailable to the police, court records show.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged Ahmed with a felony, assault in the third degree as a hate crime, which was later reduced to a misdemeanor of second degree aggravated harassment. A criminal court judge in June dismissed the case against Ahmed and in a lengthy ruling raised red flags about government surveillance and practices that ran afoul of law enforcement’s own policies.
“Where the state routinely gathers, searches, seizes, and preserves colossal amounts of information, transparency must remain a touchstone, lest fairness be lost,” the judge, Valentina Morales, wrote.
Clearview AI — in wide use by law enforcement agencies nationally, including the Department of Justice — matches photos uploaded to its system with billions of images in a database sourced from social media and other websites. The NYPD has used the technology in the past but now forbids its use under a 2020 facial recognition policy that limits image searches to arrest and parole photos.
A subsequent city law, called the POST Act, requires the NYPD to report publicly on its use of and policies regarding surveillance technologies. The City Department of Investigation has found the NYPD has not consistently complied. Reached by THE CITY, Council members indicated they were working on new legislation to close loopholes in the POST Act.
Social media photos the FDNY used to identify Ahmed included pictures at a high school formal, a school play and his high school graduation.
Ahmed, a Westchester resident who is Palestinian and grew up going to protests with his family, said he has received hateful mail and online messages since his arrest. He said he never thought photos from his teenage years could be used in this way.
“It’s something straight out of a dystopian, futuristic movie,” he said. “It’s honestly kind of scary to think about what people are capable of in terms of surveillance.”
The FDNY used facial recognition technology to help the NYPD identify Zuhdi Ahmed, July 17, 2025. Credit: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
Privacy advocates agreed.
“The NYPD keeps using these incredibly disturbing companies to spy on New Yorkers, while hiding that surveillance from the public and violating New York City law in the process,” said Albert Fox Cahn, executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project. “The FDNY is clearly being complicit in enabling these NYPD abuses.”
The NYPD referred THE CITY to FDNY for comment. An FDNY spokesperson said in a statement that approved fire marshals have access to Clearview AI and work closely with the NYPD to investigate crimes.
“This small group of elite law enforcement agents use facial recognition software as one of the many tools available to conduct critical fire investigations,” the spokesperson said. “We always follow all local, state and federal laws.”
Shane Ferro, Digital Forensics Unit staff attorney at Legal Aid, who had represented Ahmed, sought to learn more about facial recognition technology operated by the FDNY, but requests made under the New York Freedom of Information Law, or FOIL, went nowhere. Legal Aid filed a lawsuit last week seeking to obtain the information.
The judge dismissed the case precisely because of the serious questions surrounding how Ahmed was identified, Ferro noted.
Still unknown is whether the NYPD’s reliance on FDNY to circumvent the police department’s Clearview ban goes beyond this one instance.
“The way that the NYPD used FDNY to access broader and even more unreliable facial recognition technologies — in this case, to identify a protester — brings up questions about the NYPD following its own policies, the NYPD complying with the POST Act,” she said, adding that Ahmed’s saga “brings up questions about the First Amendment and the NYPD’s prohibition on using facial recognition technology to identify people at political rallies.”
‘All Good Bro…Happy to Help’
The FDNY’s use of Clearview on the NYPD’s behalf emerged in emails disclosed as part of the case against Ahmed.
The incident at the center of the case occurred near an encampment at Columbia University by pro-Palestine demonstrators. Students protested Israel’s war in Gaza which killed tens of thousands of Palestinians in response to Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, where 1,200 Israelis were killed, and 240 hostages were taken.
The Israeli military offensive has since killed more than 55,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry and devastated the strip.
Both former Columbia University President Minouche Shafik and Mayor Eric Adams facedpressure to quell the protests. On April 17, 2024, NYPD officers showed up at the encampment at Shafik’s request and made over 100 arrests. Students created a second encampment, and the highly militarized NYPD presence continued on campus until graduation. Cops subsequently used stun grenades, fired a gun inside student-occupied Hamilton Hall and flew drones over campus.
At Columbia, pro-Israel students often showed up to encampment events and demonstrations to counter-protest.
Columbia student Jonathan Lederer arrived on campus that night with his twin brother. They stood with a group behind those gathered to watch the films and waved Israeli flags, videos posted to social media show. Music played loudly out of a speaker.
Later, someone stole one of the flags and ran off, and another person tried to light it on fire. Lederer detailed his experience in The Free Press, saying he was hit in the face with objects someone threw. He later told NY1 other protesters “threw rocks at my face.”
Videosposted to social media, blurry at times, show a white object lobbed at Lederer, who appears to toss it away from him. The person who threw it flipped him the bird.
Lederer, who did not respond to emails and a call from THE CITY seeking comment, in May told the Manhattan DA’s office he’d wasn’t sure whether a laceration on the side of his face was from being hit with an object or from acne.
Ahmed declined to answer questions from THE CITY about throwing an object, but said he had been at Columbia to attend a jazz event when he’d heard chanting and walked over to the protest.
The NYPD began a search for the person who threw the object.
On June 3, 2024, the agency posted a photo of Ahmed on its Crime Stoppers Instagram account, saying he was “WANTED for Hate Crime Assault.” The posted photo was a still from a video taken at a protest in Central Park in May 2024.
Ahmed said he has no recollection of the protest or that day, but was “completely bewildered” to see his photo online with accusations he said were false.
The same day the Instagram post went up, an FDNY fire marshal emailed an NYPD detective.
“Hey brother,” the fire marshal wrote. “Good speaking with you.”
He went on to say he ran the Instagram photo “through our facial.” He said he couldn’t find the suspect’s name, but perhaps some photos he was sending along could “help with an ID.”
He attached to the email screenshots taken from Clearview AI with photos of Ahmed: one shows him at a formal event, his arm around a friend; in another, he receives his diploma at his high school graduation; and in a third, he stands with fellow graduates in their burgundy gowns. In the graduation photos, Ahmed wears a stole around his neck printed with the Palestinian flag — following a tradition that all his family members have done at graduations, he said.
The fire marshal wrote, “Not too sure what the scarf says but maybe related to Palestine?”
A different NYPD detective responded with thanks. Shortly after, the fire marshal sent links to Clearview AI face search results, an archive of school play photos and another to an archive of high school formal photos. He said he couldn’t find associated social media but offered to get a driver’s license photo for the detective. “We have access to that,” he wrote.
A minute later, the detective sent the fire marshal Ahmed’s name, date of birth and driver’s license number. Within five minutes, the fire marshal replied, “Bingo.”
NYPD detectives cannot access DMV records without permission from supervisors.
The NYPD took Ahmed’s driver’s license photo and included a digitally altered version of it in an identification array presented to Lederer, who picked Ahmed’s photo from the lineup. The photo had been edited to change the shape of Ahmed’s neck.
On June 13, the NYPD arrested and arraigned Ahmed. The following day, the fire marshal again emailed the detective: “Saw the news. Good work. Glad you grabbed him.”
The detective responded the next day: “Yea that’s to you, I appreciate the help.”
A few hours later, the fire marshal emailed back, “All good bro happy to help. Don’t hesitate to reach out again if you need anything.”
The FDNY used facial recognition technology to help the NYPD identify Zuhdi Ahmed, July 17, 2025. Credit: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
The NYPD would not have identified Ahmed but for the FDNY’s Clearview AI search and accessing the DMV photo, the judge indicated in her ruling. She wrote it was “evident that the investigatory steps described in the emails clearly contravene official NYPD policy concerning the use of facial recognition.”
NYPD may only conduct facial recognition searches within a limited repository of arrest and parole photos.
To conduct searches outside that repository, officers must get permission from the chief of department, chief of detectives or the deputy commissioner of intelligence. Employees who misuse facial recognition technology may face administrative or criminal penalties, NYPD policy states.
But in this case, FDNY’s use of Clearview’s facial recognition software trawled the Internet and yielded hundreds of matches.
Privacy advocates said they would like to see the POST Act expanded to apply to law enforcement officials who work for agencies other than the NYPD. They say that would provide insight into how other agencies are using surveillance technology, like how FDNY used it to assist the NYPD.
“It should not be a guessing game, who’s using this sort of technology and who’s doing business with a vendor this controversial,” Cahn said.
‘The Public Deserves to Know’
In April, the Council approved three additional bills to strengthen POST Act reporting and accountability requirements.
They include a law that requires tracking intergovernmental data sharing. But that only covers information the NYPD shares with other agencies, not information agencies provide to the NYPD.
Councilmember Julie Won (D-Queens), who sponsored one of the recently passed bills expanding the POST Act, said she and her colleagues are drafting legislation to close the loophole. The new bill would prohibit city agencies from using surveillance technologies on behalf of law enforcement, and mandate agencies disclose their use of surveillance technology for any reason.
“No matter what they’re using it for, the public deserves to know,” Won said.
Other Council members expressed alarm over the revelation about FDNY’s use of Clearview AI.
“This is a clear loophole we didn’t necessarily anticipate,” said Councilmember Crystal Hudson (D-Brooklyn).
Council Majority Leader Amanda Farías (D-The Bronx) called the FDNY’s use of Clearview AI on behalf of NYPD “deeply concerning” and exposed “a troubling gap in our current oversight laws.”
Councilmember Jennifer Gutiérrez (D-Brooklyn), chair of the technology committee said, “What happened here is a warning shot: without clear checks and oversight, city agencies are using powerful surveillance tools like facial recognition and AI with no accountability, no transparency, and no regard for due process.”
Councilmember Joann Ariola (R-Queens), who chairs the Council’s fire committee, disagreed, saying the FDNY was within its purview as a law enforcement agency to share information with the NYPD, but that the case “may require a deeper examination at all levels.”
As for Ahmed, he said the judge dropping the case against him brought him “the greatest relief” of his life. He said he felt like the initial hate crime charge was “an exploitation of laws that are meant to protect us, protect minorities, protect any ethnic group.”
Douglas Cohen, a spokesperson for DA Bragg said: “The office conducted a thorough investigation into this matter – interviewing multiple witnesses, analyzing available video surveillance and reviewing medical records. When that investigation determined we could not prove the legal elements of the top count beyond a reasonable doubt, we moved to dismiss the charge.”
Ahmed is now focused on recovering from the emotional and mental toll the ordeal placed on him and his family.
In December, he earned his certification as an emergency medical technician and plans to apply to medical school after college. He recently read a novel, ‘No Longer Human’ by Osamu Dazai, and related to the story.
“Essentially, the book is about someone that gets detached from society, and he’s basically isolated,” Ahmed said. “For the past year, I was scared of all the accusations, I was scared of what society thought of me.”
Our nonprofit newsroom relies on donations from readers to sustain our local reporting and keep it free for all New Yorkers. Donate to THE CITY today.
This story was produced in collaboration with Documented, the newsroom dedicated to reporting with and for immigrant communities in New York City.
On the Fourth of July, the 150 or so people packed into a small community center in Queens had much to celebrate — and fear.
“It’s very emotional,” said one man, Antonio, holding his hand over his heart and blinking back tears. Next to him lay a bouquet of roses and a colorful balloon with “Welcome Home” written in cheerful lettering.
Antonio was just 17 when he left Mexico for the United States, 27 years ago. That was the last time he saw his mother. Now, in a few minutes, she, along with 47 other mothers, fathers, grandparents and siblings, would walk through the doors. For most of the families gathered here, it would be the first time they had seen their relatives in decades.
Every few months, the Club Migrante Chinelos de Morelos, a cultural organization in Queens, organizes a “reencuentro familiar” — family reencounter, or reunification — in collaboration with local governments in the Mexican state of Morelos.
The program, one of dozens like it around the country, facilitates the travel of Mexican family members, many of whom have never had passports or birth certificates, to see their relatives in New York. Many of their close relatives in New York are undocumented, and have not been able to return to their home country in decades for fear of not being able to re-enter the U.S.
With federal arrests of immigrants intensifying, recent reunifications — THE CITY has attended three, this year — have taken on an increasingly somber tone.
At the Independence Day gathering, Aurora Morales Gil, founder of the Club Migrante Chinelos, spoke about safety precautions to the assembled families, who waited, mostly in silence, for their relatives to arrive.
“This is a moment of happiness, but I want you to know this. What we’ve seen so many times, what to do. I know that in moments of fear, I, too, become frightened when I’ve seen it. But we must know what to do.”
Family members, many of whom have not seen each other in decades, greet each other at a community center in Queens, July 4th, 2025. Credit: Taurat Hossain for THE CITY and Documented
Each family received a folder with advice on how to prepare themselves in the event of an immigration raid. One page listed local representatives who Morales Gil said families could call in case of an emergency.
She described how ICE recently detained the spouse of one of the club’s organizers and moved him across several states, leaving behind his wife and twin children. The office of one local representative, she said, had helped the family look for a lawyer, and advised them on their right not to speak to authorities.
“They told us, ‘Tell your friend, your acquaintance, your family member — once they return your phone and whatever belongings you have, to share the location. That’s how we knew her husband was being taken from here to there.”
Speaking in Spanish to the group, Félix Santana Ángeles, the community consul for the Mexican Consulate, declared, “We are not going to criticize what this country decides,” alluding to the massive budget increase for ICE that had passed in Congress just days before. “We also have the right to say, we do not agree with the persecution of Mexican women and men.”
The only way for Mexican residents of New York to empower themselves, Santana Ángeles continued, was to know their rights. Families should memorize the phone numbers of their emergency contacts, he said. If they spotted ICE conducting a raid, they should report it to the consulate. If anyone had children born in the United States, now would be a good time to apply for Mexican citizenship for them.
“We have the right to live,” said Santana Ángeles. A large American flag waved on the screen behind him.
“We are going to survive, and we are not going to leave easily.”
A few minutes later, the 48 visitors arrived from the airport.
“The moment that you have waited for is here,” Morales Gil announced to the crowd, which fell silent.
As Morales Gil called, one by one, the name of each visitor, traditional Chinelos dancers, dressed in colorful costumes with designs that celebrate Mexican heroes and mock Spanish colonizers, accompanied them into the arms of their waiting families.
Antonio sat closely next to his mother.
“It’s very beautiful, very emotional to be able to hug my son after so much time,” said Antonio’s mother, who declined to share her name with THE CITY.
Antonio agreed. “I am very happy,” he said.
Many family members were overcome with emotion at the reunification event, July 4th, 2025. Credit: Taurat Hossain for THE CITY and
‘Never Been Able to Go Back’
An estimated 412,000 New Yorkers are undocumented, according to 2022 census data. Most of them have lived in the United States for over a decade, and are unable to return to their loved ones as a result. Without legal papers, undocumented people face particular risks in leaving and attempting to re-enter the U.S.
Even as immigration authorities wreak havoc on immigrant communities across New York City, the reencuentros familiares have continued.
Morales Gil founded Club Migrante in 2012 with a dual purpose: to help New Yorkers born in her home state of Morelos obtain their birth certificates, and to strengthen Morelense culture in New York City.
In 2017, she learned of a program in Illinois called “Abuelitas,” started by a Republican congressman, that enabled undocumented U.S. residents to reunite with their Mexican relatives. For Morales Gil, the program immediately held appeal.
“Aurora knew that there was a huge need to address that family separation,” said Daniel, Morales Gil’s brother, at a reunification event in May. The siblings, both originally from Morelos, had many friends and relatives who had been stuck in the U.S. for decades.
“They’ve never been able to return to Mexico, but they also can’t have legal status in the United States,” he said, in Spanish. “So these families have had children and grandchildren. They’re homeowners, business owners, they’re part of the economy of the United States, part of the community. But they just can’t go to Mexico.”
Traditional Chinelos dancers give a performance before the arrival of family members, July 4th, 2025. Credit: Taurat Hossain for THE CITY and
The early years of the reunification program, he said, were much more difficult. The Club Chinelos engaged in careful negotiations with local Mexican governments, necessary in order to launch an officially-sanctioned reunification program. In the U.S., Morales Gil took pains to convince authorities that the U.S.-based family members paying for round-trip flights from Mexico had no intention of having their relatives overstay their visitor visas.
Gradually, Daniel said, the process smoothed out. “No one ever stays in the United States. We bring them here and send them back. It’s not a burden on the United States government.”
The need for reunification programs to bring together families long-separated by the border ties closely into 90s-era trade agreements like NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, that allowed for the flow of goods and capital — but not human mobility.
“What we have is a situation where millions of people came to the United States in the mid-90s from Mexico — because of NAFTA, because of the devaluation of the peso, because of a very severe drought, and a confluence of other factors,” said Alyshia Gálvez, professor of anthropology at the CUNY Graduate Center and former director of the CUNY Mexican Studies Institute. But Mexican immigrants “had no way of coming here with authorization. And so the targets for this kind of reunification program are those people who came in the mid-90s and have never been able to go back.”
Chinelos dancers wore traditional costumes, July 4th, 2025. Credit: Taurat Hossain for THE CITY and
Local governments also benefit from the reunification programs. Many rural, poorer regions of Mexico depend heavily on remittances sent by expatriates in the U.S. The business-oriented government of Enrique Peña Nieto increased investment in the Instituto de los Mexicanos en el Exterior (“Institute for Mexicans Abroad,” or IME), as a method to strengthen ties with Mexican citizens primarily in the states. That investment led to renewed funding for government-supported reunification programs.
But the following, more nationalist-oriented government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador cut funding to the reencuentros. So private organizations, said Gálvez, stepped in to address the devastating consequences of family separation. Today, dozens of reunification programs exist across the U.S. with little regulation. Some charge many thousands of dollars to families desperate to see their loved ones again.
The program run by the Club Migrante Chinelos de Morelos can cost upwards of $2,000 per family member. Relatives, usually those already in the U.S., pay around $1,500 for the flight, accompaniment, and travel to New York City. In Mexico, travel to visa appointments, obtaining birth certificates — in rural regions, people are sometimes born outside of hospitals — local government fees, and other bureaucratic processes can add several hundred dollars more.
Even though many of these reunification programs are now run as for-profit businesses, taking some advantage of families desperate to see their loved ones again, Gálvez says they play an essential role in mitigating the harms of border enforcement. They also facilitate the enrollment of marginalized people in Mexico into government identification systems.
“The government intervention is really helpful. A lot of times people need to find their birth certificates or generate other kinds of proof of citizenship for the elderly folks who’ve never had identity documents. So it’s really hard for anybody but government entities to do the paperwork required. And it just pools a lot of resources so that it’s easier and less scary for families to get their family members, elderly family members mostly, to come here.”
The collective attention on asylum-seekers arriving in the last five years, Gálvez continued, has shifted the focus away from people who never had the chance to apply for asylum.
“There’s some amnesia happening in the United States,” she said. “We’ve forgotten how many millions of people arrived 25, 30 years ago and have nothing — no status, no access to a change of status. So all of the dominant culture discourses about, like, ‘Get in line, do it the right way,’ just completely missed the mark in terms of these millions of people who have never had a line to get into, never had a form of legalization.”
“It’s just unbelievably cruel, and I think anything we can do to kind of tell the human stories behind that family separation is really, really important,” she continued.
The program run by the Club Migrante Chinelos de Morelos can cost upwards of $2,000 per family member. Credit: Taurat Hossain for THE CITY and Documented
The reunifications have had to undergo some adjustments in recent months to ensure the safety of their participants. Morales Gil has moved many of the reunifications away from more public areas, like Mexican restaurants, to more secluded ones: a nightclub in the middle of an afternoon; an unobtrusive community center.
“It doesn’t attract attention,” she said.
While reunifications in previous years were promoted with elaborate invitations on the group’s Facebook page, recent ones have not been advertised. The group allowed reporters, Morales Gil said, because it was important to know how these separations affected families.
“I’m grateful for this country, but at the same time I feel it’s unfair,” said Morales Gil. “Most of these people don’t have the opportunity to obtain a green card, and they continue to contribute to the economy. It’s very cruel.”
‘Missing Out on So Many Things”
For undocumented New Yorkers, decades-long separation from their loved ones carries a heavy toll.
On an April afternoon, two sisters, Rosa and Amalia, sat in Rosa’s warmly decorated kitchen in Sunset Park. Rosa, who has lived in the U.S. for decades, arranged for her sister to visit from their hometown in Cuautla.
Anticipating her sister’s arrival, “I already felt the emotions,” said Rosa, 64, who declined to share her name with THE CITY because she is undocumented. “Then, the feeling of being face to face — they exploded. And the moment was magical.”
The two sisters had spent the last several weeks reacquainting themselves with each other, “turisteando” — doing tourism — Rosa said.
The reunification events have been moved away from more public places, like Mexican restaurants, to more secluded ones as immigration enforcement has ramped up. Credit: Taurat Hossain for THE CITY and Documented
“She forgot what I was like when I was younger,” Rosa laughed, looking at her sister. “Now that we’re living together, she remembers — ‘Oh yes, she was always like that.’”
Aging brings its own challenges, and reflections.
“You come here for a better dream, for a better life, to fulfill the various commitments you make over there. But it’s difficult not being able to return, not being able to see your family, missing out on so many things.”
Amalia and Rosa have a third sister who lives in Michigan. Rosa last visited her five years ago, when she fell ill with cancer. Amalia had been planning to visit her on this trip — but Rosa, fearing immigration authorities, decided it was safer to stay in New York.
“Now I can’t go anywhere near the airport for fear of deportation, for fear of being caught by an immigration agent and detained by bad luck,” said Rosa. “So it can’t be a complete reunion.”
Our nonprofit newsroom relies on donations from readers to sustain our local reporting and keep it free for all New Yorkers. Donate to THE CITY today.
Noah Kalina is uploading videos of the “long photograph” variety of peaceful & contemplative nature scenes to YouTube. 4K. No AI. “Press play and walk away.”
Every time you support Harry Potter, you are supporting hate. Whether you go to see the Cursed Child, buy the books, the films, or the merch, or simply use a fun Harry Potter metaphor to illustrate a point, you are supporting attacks on the human rights of trans people.
Sweltering Red Hook residents are urging the Parks Department to make fixes to their beloved outdoor pool, which remains closed weeks after the season kicked off — and will close again in a few years for a major renovation.
The Olympic-sized pool never got the chance to open in late June because a decades-old pipe crumbled as Parks staffers worked to pump the facility with the more than a million gallons of water required to fill it, officials said.
“One of the main feeder pipes just completely disintegrated, then there’s no way to get water into the pool,” Mark Focht, the acting first deputy commissioner of the Parks Department, told THE CITY.
“There’s no way to anticipate things, that’s the challenge with older infrastructure,” LeRoy Temple, assistant commissioner for citywide services, added. “Visually it [the pipe] look[ed] fine. One moment it’s not there, and the next moment a leak springs.”
Given the pool’s age — it opened in 1936 — the 16-inch pipe is hard to replace, so officials said they put in an emergency work order to create a replacement.
It’s expected to open in mid-August just a few weeks before the swimming season ends on Sept. 7, according to Focht.
But with temperatures reaching into the 90s with punishing humidity, residents and activists are demanding the city do more to get the pool back open as fast as it can.
Kathy Park Price, director of advocacy and policy at the nonprofit New Yorkers for Parks, said the pool closure in a historically underserved neighborhood like Red Hook is “another example where residents are left out in the heat in a very hot summer.”
“Pools are not a luxury, they are essential to communities, so to have this pool close on the first day the pools were supposed to open — that’s heartbreaking,” she said. “And it’s salt in the wound to also learn that the pool won’t open until summer is almost over.”
The group launched a petition to push the Parks Department to speed up repairs.
The filter room at the Red Hook Pool. Credit: Courtesy of the Parks Department
On June 1, eight of the Parks Department’s 12 indoor pools were closed for mechanical issues or construction.
The Red Hook Pool and its adjacent recreation center are slated for a more than $120 million renovation project that includes repairs on Hurricane Sandy damage from 2012, and upgrades to the building’s exterior.
The project is expected to close the pool in the summer of 2028, although the timeline is still preliminary, officials said.
Alan Mukamal, a longtime Red Hook pool swimmer, said he was disappointed to learn about the closure.
He said the official suggestion to go to the nearest open pool, in Sunset Park, isn’t convenient for him or most of his neighbors either, and noted there weren’t enough opportunities for young people to learn how to swim. (In Brooklyn, the free Learn to Swim program for kids run through the Parks Department is available only at the McCarren and Kosciuszko pools.)
“For someone that doesn’t have other means, can’t afford a gym — learning to swim should not be an optional thing, we should make it mandatory,” he said.
“When you think about what people do to live in the city, how hard it is to live in the city, these things make it worthwhile.”
Waves of Closures
Meanwhile, swimmers across the city have complained about intermittent closures of other pools, even as the agency’s lifeguard shortage has eased.
On June 20, the pool at the Flushing Meadows Corona Park aquatics center was closed because the pool deck was too hot, the agency posted on its website.
When outdoor pools opened June 26, there were other rolling closures of indoor and outdoor pools, or they only partially opened.
A lifeguard chair at the Astoria Pool, June 27, 2024. Credit: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
And although adult lap swimming returned for the first time since the pandemic to one pool in each borough three days a week starting July 7, there have been disruptions.
During heat waves, the Parks Department cancels its outdoor aquatics programs that begin before 11 a.m. so they can expand pool hours to later in the evening and not overwork lifeguards on duty.
Matt Malina, the executive director and founder of the educational organization NYC H2O, said he went for early-morning lap swimming Wednesday at Hamilton Fish pool in Manhattan to find it closed.
“If there are lifeguards available then why isn’t it brought back especially when the budget is the biggest it’s ever been,” he said. “It’s an enigma to me.”
Our nonprofit newsroom relies on donations from readers to sustain our local reporting and keep it free for all New Yorkers. Donate to THE CITY today.
“New Yorkers have proved they want climate justice, and any official who ignores us has no business being in public office.”
State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie. (Flickr/New York State Assembly Majority)
It is no secret that, on the federal level, 2025 has been a disastrous year for climate legislation. President Donald Trump’s re-entrance into the White House came with the demolition of key climate legislation, the promise of new fossil fuel infrastructure, and a practically complete destruction of the Environmental Protection Agency.
But state legislation is just as essential in combating the climate crisis as federal legislation, and in the wake of a terrifying and incompetent administration in Washington, New Yorkers from across the state have united to demand that our leaders rise to the occasion and continue pushing climate justice forward.
However, last month marked a tragic end to a legislative session ruled by climate inaction, incompetence, and cowardice, orchestrated primarily by New York State Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie.
The Package Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act, a bill that would tax companies for excess packaging and require them to reduce their overall packaging by 30 percent over the next 12 years, received unprecedented public support this year, being the most lobbied piece of legislation in March and April.
However, in an obscene act of pandering to giant corporations such as Coca Cola, which publicly opposed the bill, Mr. Heastie refused to even bring it to a vote. The Assembly receives hundreds of bills each session and so, out of necessity, only brings to a vote the ones that seem like they will pass. However, the huge show of support for the Package Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act, which had 80 co-sponders, more than half of the entire Assembly (and assuming they all vote yes, enough to pass the bill) should qualify it for a vote.
In response to the outrage that followed, Mr. Heastie declared that, “Contrary to popular belief, I am the most accurate counter of votes.” The speaker has a history of opposition against climate legislation, having in the past prevented other popular bills such as the New York HEAT Act from being passed.
For decades New Yorkers from all across the state have demanded our government take immediate and swift action to combat the climate crisis. We have demanded it through enormous marches, thousands of people strong, through forming hundreds of activist groups and coalitions, and through lobbying non-stop in Albany. The apathy and, in some cases, outright condescension that our state’s leaders have given in response is nothing short of outrageous.
We must never forget that, above all else, politicians are public servants. It is their job to enact the will of their citizens. New Yorkers have proved they want climate justice, and any official who ignores us has no business being in public office.
Asher Cohen is a recent high school graduate and a member of 350 Brooklyn, a local environmental organization.
New dress — I asked Kavi to take a few pics to show you. It’s from a Hong Kong / California site called BloomChic, which is plus-size, 10-30. I wear a 10 currently, which fits true to size. I ordered a few things from them, and I like 3 out of 4 — and the […]
Kavi’s home! She had a great time with her friend in Granada and Malaga, and ate a lot of chorizo and patatas bravas. Also gelato, which isn’t Spanish, I think? But right next door… She says she would go back with me, and I’ve never been to Spain and am desperate to see Gaudi’s Sagrada […]
A 45-year-old man was beaten and robbed in Corona by a mugger who police say remains at large.
Police from the 115th Precinct in are looking for a suspect who law enforcement sources say approached the victim as he walked near the intersection of 37th Avenue and Warren Street on Monday, July 7. The perpetrator snuck up behind him at around 4:07 a.m., pushed him to the ground and began punching the victim repeatedly before striking him an unknown object.
The assailant then forcibly removed the victim’s backpack, Apple iPhone 12 and approximately $200 in cash before running off southbound on Warren Street toward Roosevelt Avenue, police said.
EMS responded to the crime scene and transported the victim to Elmhurst Hospital, where he was treated for swelling, bruising and a laceration to the face. He is listed in stable condition.
Police on Thursday released surveillance video of the suspect walking along Warren Street.
He has a medium complexion with black hair and a beard. He wore a gray hooded sweatshirt, long black shorts and black sneakers.
Anyone with information regarding this robbery investigation is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at crimestoppers.nypdonline.org or on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter) @NYPDTips. All calls and messages are confidential.
Through July 13, the 115th Precinct has reported 157 robberies so far in 2025, 71 fewer than the 228 reported at the same point last year, a decline of 31.1%, according to the most recent CompStat report. Felony assaults are also down in the precinct with 290 reported so far this year, 46 fewer than the 3336 reported at the same point in 2024, a decrease of 13.7%, according to CompStat.
How AI Wreaked Havoc on the Lo-Fi Beat Scene. “The music’s association with aimless, unfocused listening — vibe music before vibe became a buzzword — means people aren’t paying as much attention to what’s real and what’s not…”
The view outside my shop is prettier; I spent some time this week putting together two little planter / pond displays, trying to soften the hardscape a bit down the center aisle, make the Berwyn Shops more inviting. I think it’s better now. More flowers = better, right?
Garden, week of 6/24/25, posting late due to travel. Hydrangeas and lilies, plus summer blooming natives starting to really shine. Ask if you have questions!
Anderson Ranch, Intro to Furniture Design, day 2, afternoon, (post 8 of ??). You get a photo of my lunch because it was one of the yummiest at the ranch (they had fajita-spice-marinated grilled eggplant for the vegetarians, interesting!), and because I really like this pumpkin hot sauce — enough that I went to their […]
For years now, photographer Fujio Kito has been documenting cement playground equipment in Japan, often capturing them at night, lit up in captivating ways.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
thecityny_feed
