Nosurrender
Chuck cheers workers at immig call center
THE 15TH annual CUNY/Daily News Citizenship Now! hotline ended Friday the way it began — with a flood of calls and a deluge of visits from New York lawmakers.
Sen. Chuck Schumer called out President Trump while addressing the volunteers taking calls from people seeking free immigration advice.
“Who opposes immigrants? Mostly people who don’t know immigrants,” Schumer said.
“You have all these manipulators that conjure up bad views of immigrants as criminals or drug dealers, (including) the President. It’s disgraceful.”
At the end of his remarks, Schumer asked the crowd of volunteers to call out the names of their home countries or those of their ancestors.
The answers included China, Haiti, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Russia.
“What a great country we are,” Schumer shouted, raising both fists in the air.
The hotline received 3,221 calls Friday — raising the weeklong tally to 13,716.
The call-in fielded 13,327 calls last year.
More than a half-dozen city and state politicians visited the Citizenship Now! headquarters at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan Friday.
Among them were city councilman Carlos Menchaca (DBrooklyn), state assemblyman Brian Barnwell (D-Queens) and Queens deputy borough president Melva Miller.
Lt. Gov. Kathleen Hochul cheered the volunteers and suggested the call-in service should exist in cities across the country.
“You’re transforming lives with every hour, every call you take,” she said. “We should be replicating a program like this where you're helping people find a better life, not just across the state, but across the country.”
Hochul added that New York’s ethnic diversity is what makes it truly shine.
Unless you’re a Native American you are an immigrant. That’s a fact. And that’s what makes this state so special,” she said.
“We embrace these individuals. We point to the Statue of Liberty in our harbor with pride as a beacon of hope.”
State Assemblyman Richard Gottfried (D-Manhattan) a similar sentiment.
“Almost every New Yorker is an immigrant or the descendent of immigrants. This is how the city grows,” Gottfried said.
“It’s important that New York continue to demonstrate to the world that immigration is important to the strength of our city and state.”
More than 80 phone lines — double last year’s tally — were open this year.
Since the program’s inception, more than 174,000 people have received free advice on citizenship and immigration law questions. offered