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The Citizen


Photo (cc) Lissame

More than half of all New York City public school students are immigrants or the children of immigrants, and one out of four is not a native English speaker. How well do the city schools serve those hundreds of thousands of kids?

This topic has received a lot of attention in the past month and the answer, it seems, depends upon who you ask.

Not surprisingly, the Department of Education thinks it has made important strides in this area. In an analysis released earlier this month, the department highlighted a substantial increase in the number of English language learners becoming proficient in English. According to the department, "more than 29 percent of fourth-grade English language learners met standards on the State English Language Arts test in 2008, compared to just over 4 percent in 2003." Results for the fourth and eighth-grade math tests improved as well, leading the department to conclude, "English language learners without special needs met standards on the math exam at the same rate as other students."

But, as the Inside Schools blog noted, the report includes other less rosy figures not featured in the press release. It found that "the less dramatic gains by middle school ELLs, relatively flat Regents scores and flat graduation rates (31.6 percent in 2003 and 30.8 percent in 2007) underscore the immediate demand for deeper, more focused attention."

The report came only days after a Bronx hearing on mayoral control of schools, where, the Daily News reported, "State lawmakers grilled city education officials ... on the lackluster progress of English Language Learners since the mayor took control of the schools."

English language learners lag on some key measures, according to Deycy Avitia of the New York Immigration Coalition. For example, she told Gotham Schools, only 5 percent of middle school English language learners meet state standards on the language arts test.

And while the city hails increases in the overall high school graduation rate, Avitia said that less than a third of English language learners graduate -- with the percentage remaining virtually unchanged since 2003. According to Chung-Wha Hong, executive director of the Immigration Coalition, only 10 percent of the students learning English graduate with the more rigorous Regents diploma that will soon be required of all high school students in the state. "We're sounding the alarm because I don't think it does anybody any good to try to gloss over this problem," she told the Times.

Meanwhile a report by Advocates for Children released in mid March concludes that many immigrant parents feel shut out of the schools. They "described being blocked at the door by school security because they do not have official identification, intimidated by school staff who are insensitive or unresponsive to their needs and discriminated against because of their background or limited English abilities," the group said in a release.

For the past several weeks, our partner, Voices that Must Be Heard, has been taking a close look at immigrants in city schools. The findings of reporters from various ethnic papers reflect many of the concerns in the Advocates for Children report, along with other issues affecting students from Russia, China, Bangladesh and Latin America. Also, this month a look at ethnic media, competition for scarce jobs, a food fight on Roosevelt Avenue and more from the Russia, Bangladeshi, Chinese and Spanish-language press courtesy of Voices that Must Be Heard.

Education

Less Than a Quarter of English Learners Graduate, El Diario / La Prensa
The city's high school graduation rate for English language learners is a shockingly low 23.5 percent. This does not bode well for immigrant communities and a city that increasingly relies on them for productivity and growth.

High School Drop-Out Rate Remains High Among Latino Teens, Latin Week New York
Scores of Latino high school students don't graduate from high school on time, forcing them to get a GED or disappear from the education system altogether. What prompts these students to drop out?

Assigning Immigrant Children to Special Education, Diario de Mexico
With an increasing number of students who do not speak English, educators must determine whether children are struggling academically because of learning or developmental disabilities or simply because they do not know the language. To ensure the best placement, parents must advocate for their kids -- an unaccustomed role for some immigrants.

Immigrant Students Struggle to Adjust to City Schools, Novoye Russkoye Slovo
Facing a new country, new kids, new culture, new food and new school, immigrant students face many challenges, but the city schools offer little help to ease the transition.

Bangladeshi Parents Unfamiliar with City Schools, Bangla Patrika
Many Bangladeshi parents know little about the city's schools or are reluctant to approach the schools, while others say the schools do not do enough to reach out to immigrant parents. Whatever the reason, the parents' lack of involvement can put their children at risk.

More Chinese Parents Turn to Private Schools, Sing Tao Daily

Chinese teenagers and their parents, concerned about large class sizes in city public schools, are checking out private schools, spurred by a surge in scholarships.
Groups Call for More Chinese Classes in City Schools, World Journal
Many children of Chinese immigrants want to learn their native tongue. But such classes are not offered in city public schools, even in Chinese strongholds like Flushing and Sunset Park, so students attend private language classes after the end of the regular school day.

Other Topics

With Jobs Tight, Program for Foreign Workers Gets New Scrutiny, Russkaya Reklama
With hundreds of thousands of people out of work, many Americans, including some immigrants, have come to view skilled foreign workers here on special visas as a threat.

U.S. Will Continue to Deport Haitians, Carib News
The Department of Homeland Security says it will deport undocumented Haitian immigrants, despite appeals by the Haitian government, which has warned that the deportations could destabilize the impoverished Caribbean country.

Development Could Cause Sleepless Nights in El Barrio, El Diario / La Prensa
The massive East River Plaza shopping mall under construction at 116th Street and the FDR Drive could dramatically increase noise and traffic in the area, affecting the health and well-being of thousands of people.

Despite Growing Readership, Ethnic Media Struggle, Carib News
A recent City Council hearing on New York's ethnic media brought up an apparent paradox: Unlike daily papers, ethnic and community newspapers are not suffering from a lack of readers, but they do suffer from a lack of advertising revenue, the mainstay of their existence.

Drugs A Growing Problem Among City's Bangladeshis, Bangla Patrika
An unintended consequence of the Bangladeshi community's progress is the incidence of drug addiction among Bangladeshi women, a problem that has created turmoil in a number of families.

Mexican Family Brings Healthy Food to Brooklyn, El Diario de Mexico
The brothers Gregorio and MartĂ­n Quechol, both Mexican immigrants, recently saw one of their greatest dreams realized as their own business, a supermarket specializing in organic food products, opened in Brooklyn.

Street Vendors vs. Restaurants on Roosevelt Avenue
Food vendors on the Queens street do a booming business -- much to the consternation of restaurants that have seen their business diminish.

The Citizen


Photo (cc) megapickle
Chinese New Year was one of the few bright moments in this season's economic gloom.

The appointment of upstate U.S. Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand to fill Hillary Clinton's Senate seat sparked concern among many immigrant advocates across the state. As the representative from a partly rural and largely Republican area, Gillibrand opposed any kind of amnesty for the undocumented, supported efforts to make English the country's official language and fought former Gov. Eliot Spitzer unsuccessful effort to give driver's licenses to immigrants, regardless of their status.

In response, Gillibrand, who has also come under attack for her pro-gun views, met with Hispanic leaders earlier this month in an effort to assuage their fears. As she has on other issues, Gillibrand reportedly attributed some of her positions to the district she represented. It remained unclear, though, how her ideas might "evolve" now that she represents the entire state. Nonetheless, Hispanic leaders said they would be watching.

In other news, a report by the Immigration Justice Clinic at New York’s Cardozo School of Law found that in 2006 the Bush administration changed the focus of the National Fugitive Operation Program to focus on the number of undocumented immigrants arrested rather than the danger they posed. As a result 75 percent of the people arrested under the program -- originally designed to concentrate on people who posed a threat -- had no arrest records. Advocates in New York and elsewhere are looking to the Obama administration to change these and other policies, but so far the president has offered little indication of what he might do.

Locally, the city's schools have seen an increase in the number of teenage immigrant students who have never attended school -- even in their native countries. While some 150,000 city public school students have to learn English, the New York Times reported, "An estimated 15,100 ... have had little or no formal schooling and are often illiterate in their native languages."

In addition, New Yorkers from Pakistan's Swat Valley, a Taliban stronghold, have seen tensions from their native home trickling across the Atlantic. Some have been threatened, kidnapped and even murdered on trips back to Pakistan, and others report they have received threats here as well.

The economic recession continues to batter New York's immigrant communities. The crisis has even promoted the reversal of our traditional remittance -- immigrants here are receiving money from back home, instead of the other way around. With so many immigrants in need of services, Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum's office released a comprehensive Guide to Public Benefits for Immigrants to tell immigrants what assistance they can -- and cannot -- receive. The guide is available in English and five other languages.

The economic gloom did not keep Asians in the city from marking the Lunar New Year (For a video of the celebration in Chinatown, go here). It did though put a bit of a crimp in the festivities. Korean merchants were forced to cut back on the free calendars they traditionally distribute this time of year.

These and other stories from the Chinese, Korean, Spanish and Bangladeshi language press via our partner, Voices That Must Be Heard.

Immigrants Fall Victim to Unscrupulous Mortgage Brokers (New York Carib News)
Immigrants across New York have been duped by lenders from their "home country" and now face losing their homes.

Fallout from Wall Street Hits City's Mexicans (Diario de Mexico)
The collapse of the stock markets affects not only Wall Street financiers, but also Mexican workers who have lost jobs because of the disappearance of hundreds of positions in the financial sector in Lower Manhattan.

Recession Hits Bangladeshi Businesses Hard (Weekly Thikana)
In neighborhoods with large Bangladeshi communities, shops are fighting to stay alive. Many have already either been closed or sold, and owners worry that, if the situation gets worse, more businesses will have to declare bankruptcy.

Not Homeless But Still Hungry (World Journal)
Some hungry people who have a roof over their heads have begun frequenting a Chinatown program to feed the homeless. The organization that runs it says there just isn’t enough food to go around.

Recession Reverses the Flow of Money (El Diario / La Prensa)
The financial and economic crisis is leading many Dominicans to transfer money to the United States from the Caribbean country, a change from the usual practice.

With Companies Cutting Back, Koreans Turn to Nursing (Korea Times New York)
As corporations announce layoffs, many Korean exchange students have decided to switch careers and enter nursing, a field likely to be in high demand in the coming years.

Recession Sparks Increase in Crime (Weekly Thikana)
Crime -- including theft, robbery and carjacking -- seems to be on the rise in parts of the city among Bangladeshi residents and businesses.

Fighting Bias Crimes (El Correo de Queens)
Facing an increase in hate crime, a Queens community decides to take action.

Gillibrand Softens Her Stand(La Tribuna Hispana USA)
Latino groups greeted the new appointment of Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand to the U.S. Senate with alarms. Now, facing an avalanche of protests, she is toning down her stance.

Plans to Close Two Hospitals Alarms Queens Residents (El Diario / La Prensa)
Saint John's and Mary Immaculate hospitals could close their doors on Feb. 28. This would add 2,500 people to the rolls of the unemployed and some Queens residents without vital health services close to home.

Census of Muslims Planned (Iran Times)
A new private census hopes to more accurately count the number of Muslims living in the United States. At the same time, it is reviving controversy over the number of religious minorities, how they are counted and why it matters.

Bribing One's Way to Affordable Housing (V Novom Svete)
Can it really be that in the Big Apple you have to pay a large bribe to move into a low-rent apartment under the Section 8 federal housing voucher program?

NY's Immigrants Live in Bad Housing (India Post)
Immigrant tenants in New York City have a hard time finding safe, decent and affordable housing, according to a recent report.

Push to Make Lunar New Year an Official New York Holiday (Korea Times New York)
The campaign to recognize the Lunar New Year as a holiday is in full swing in New York, with proponents calling on parents to let their children stay home from school that day.

Free Calendar Another Victim of Hard Times (Korea Times New York)
Korean businesses have a tradition of giving free calendars to anyone for the New Year. However, due to the economic depression, many Korean businesses this year cancelled the calendar or gave them only to customers.

Police Charged with False Arrests of Gay Men at Adult Video Stores


Police Charged with False Arrests
There has been a sharp increase recently in the number of gay men arrested for prostitution at adult video stores in Manhattan.

Anger is building against the police department in the wake of an increase in arrests of gay men for prostitution at Manhattan adult video stores. Last week, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn joined in the outcry. She said she is working with the mayor's office and commanders of the police department to set up a meeting that will include gay community groups "to get to the bottom of this."

The arrests have been documented by Duncan Osborne of the Gay City News over the last several months. Police are allegedly using handsome young undercover cops to cruise middle-aged gay men, offering to go home with them for consensual sex. As they leave the store together, the cop offers to pay the man for the sex, confusing the victims who can't imagine why the younger man would make such a proposal. Then, as they walk out of the store, the victim, despite never having agreed to any exchange of money, is surrounded by undercover cops, handcuffed and charged with prostitution.

Gay activists and civil libertarians see the arrests as part of a continuing effort to shut down porn operations in the city and a tendency by the police department to criminalize gay sexual behavior.

We need to see [the arrest policy] stopped and to figure out how it started," Quinn told Gotham Gazette, calling the arrests of gay men "the most egregious I have heard of" going back to her days as executive director of the Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project, which is part of a coalition to stop these arrests. "It's not even entrapment," she said. "These are false arrests."

Recounting the Arrests

Anger over the arrests also brought more than 200 people to a town hall meeting at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center in January.

Robert Pinter, a 52-year-old gay man who was arrested for prostitution at the Blue Door in the East Village on Oct. 10, spoke at the town hall meeting. He said a young man — a 29-year old undercover cop who, Pinter said, looked even younger — cruised him in the store. He was "charming and persistent, and we agreed to go home for consensual sex, but as we were leaving he said, 'I want to pay you $50 [to have sex].' I didn't respond, but I thought it was strange," Pinter recounted. As the men left the store, Pinter said, a group of men who did not show police identification pushed him against the wall

"I thought I'd been set up by a gang," he said. "I asked them why they were doing this to me. I was totally clueless. They handcuffed me and said, 'Why the f--- do you think we're arresting you — loitering for the purpose of prostitution.'"

Pinter spent several hours in a police van, more time at the Seventh Precinct, and "16 or 17 hours in the Tombs," the city jail downtown. His Legal Aid attorney "strongly suggested I plead guilty to disorderly conduct," which he did, although he now regrets it. He was also ordered to go to city-sponsored classes on how to engage in prostitution more safely.

Most of the victims, some of whom are foreign tourists and almost all of whom have never been arrested before, have been encouraged by their lawyers to plead guilty to "disorderly conduct" and end their ordeal, rather than risk trial on the much more serious charge of prostitution. But as the arrests have piled up, civil rights and Legal Aid lawyers have convinced some of the men to fight the charges.

Michael Spiegel, a veteran civil rights litigator, who won a landmark case in 2006 against the Port Authority police for targeting and falsely arresting gay men in Port Authority restrooms, is the process of identifying men caught up in the current sweep who are interested in fighting the charges. "Their civil rights have been violated," he said.

The arrests at the Blue Door, Osborne said, "are suspect and improbable. While overall, 17 percent of men arrested for prostitution in New York City are over 40 years of age, 66 percent of the men arrested at this location targeted by police were over 42.

The experience has radicalized Pinter, who founded a Coalition to Stop the Arrests that meets on an ongoing basis at the LGBT Center. "We have to hold the NYPD accountable," he said, "and keep the pressure on until it ends."

Going After 'Nuisances'

At the town hall meeting and in his stories in Gay City News, Osborne has tied the arrests to the city's aggressive enforcement of the 1977 "nuisance abatement law." Former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and now Mayor Michael Bloomberg have used the law to sue and close businesses where alleged "criminal activity is demonstrated." According to Osborne, such nuisance abatement cases increased from 110 in 1994 to 709 in 1996 to 899 last year, closing everything from chop shops to unlicensed massage parlors.

"The commander of Midtown South said that civil enforcement is a police commander's best friend," Osborne said, who noted the city has had an ongoing effort to shut porn stores.

Following a spate of arrests at another porn shop, the Unicorn in Chelsea, the city sued to close it, citing the arrests by undercover officers.

The Police Department did not respond to Gotham Gazette's e-mailed query after the town hall meeting. Previously, Paul Browne, the department's deputy commissioner for public information, told Gay City News, "The fact remains that the locations had become notorious for solicitation of sex acts, with complaints from the public resulting in police attention."

Bloomberg's press office refused comment, referring questions to the police department. District Attorney Robert Morgenthau's spokesperson, Alicia Maxey Greene, also "declined to comment" on the arrests or his office's prosecution of these cases.

State Sen. Thomas Duane said he has been in contact with the district attorney's office and placed a call to Morgenthau himself, but almost a week later had not received a call back from the district attorney.

Duane, who spoke at the town hall meeting, called for the arrests to stop immediately. "People's lives are being ruined," he said. He was noncommittal about whether there should be a criminal investigation into the police conduct. "We have to take things one step at a time, "he said.

City Councilmember Rosie Mendez of the Lower East Side issued a statement criticizing the police for "targeting and criminalizing behavior that is legal."

"In this instance, they are targeting the sexual conduct of gay men. This type of targeting is simply the harassment of certain type of commercial ventures and of potential customers of legitimate businesses. This type of harassment infringes upon an individual's civil liberties," she wrote.

At the town hall meeting, some speakers said police use of false prostitution charges has gone beyond the video stores. Jennifer Ramirez of the Anti-Violence Project said that police go on the "casual encounters" section of Craig's List to trawl for potential arrestees.

"The cops go on the assumption that everyone's a sex worker," she said. "It's not getting better, it is getting worse." As a transgendered outreach worker, she said, "When I'm out on the street doing education, I'm perceived [by the police] as a sex worker and I'm criminalized."

Andrea Ritchie of the Urban Justice Center's Sex Workers Project said police arrest gay and transgendered people for conduct "that would be ignored or winked at in heterosexual people." African American and Latino people are particularly at risk, she added.

There was a sense at the town hall meeting that the public outcry might prompt the police to end their arrests of middle-aged white gay men on false prostitution charges. However, they said, the wider problem of police abuse of their arrest powers for gay, lesbian and transgendered people will continue unless the political leaders protesting the former look into the latter.

The Gay City News series on the arrests:

Five More Prostitution Busts IDed in Chelsea Video Store (Jan. 22, 2009)

Community Mobilizes Over False Prostitution Arrests at Video Stores (Jan. 16, 2009)

NYPD, City Respond to Questions About Prostitution Arrests (Dec. 5)

Shuttering Porn Shops, City Fakes Arrests (Dec. 3)

Courts Training Prostitutes? (Nov. 6, 2008)



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