The New York Civil Liberties Union will join farmworkers, community and civil rights advocates, and religious leaders in Albany today to urge state lawmakers to enact the Farmworkers Fair Labor Practices Act – legislation that will extend basic labor rights and protections to the state’s farmworkers. Even though they form the backbone of the state’s $4.7 billion agriculture industry, farmworkers are denied basic labor protections, including rights to overtime pay, to a day off per week, to workers’ compensation if they are injured on the job and to engage in collective bargaining.

The New York Civil Liberties Union today commended a bipartisan group of eight U.S. senators for proposing comprehensive immigration reform legislation that would provide a pathway to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants living and working in the United States. "This proposal represents an important first step for many New York families that have for too long been forced into the shadows by a dysfunctional immigration system, but it creates problems that will threaten the privacy and liberty of immigrants and citizens alike," NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman said.

The New York Civil Liberties Union and the Immigration Justice Clinic at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law today filed a complaint challenging the unlawful, racially motivated arrest of an American citizen by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in New York’s North Country.

In response to the Obama administration’s announcement today that it will grant eligible young, undocumented immigrants two years of immunity from deportation subject to renewal, the New York Civil Liberties Union issued the following statement attributable to NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman:

Community and civil rights advocates, religious leaders and farmworkers gathered in Albany today to urge state lawmakers to enact the Farmworkers Fair Labor Practices Act – legislation that will extend basic labor rights and protections to the state’s farmworkers.

The leadership of the New York Civil Liberties Union today expressed deep concern that despite the objections of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, New York City officials, and federal, state and city lawmakers, the federal government is today implementing the Secure Communities deportation program in New York City and across the state. Last June, Cuomo stood up for the rights of all New Yorkers by suspending the state’s participation in Secure Communities. Yet today, the Department of Homeland Security is ignoring New York’s wishes and implementing this failed program in our state.

The New York Civil Liberties Union today joined a coalition of immigrants’ rights and civil rights organizations in urging Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to take measures to ensure that the U.S. Border Patrol’s enforcement tactics along the northern border respect people’s constitutional rights.

The U.S. Border Patrol is using aggressive policing tactics far from the border in upstate New York to increase arrest rates with little regard to New Yorkers’ constitutional rights and freedoms, according to a report released today by the NYU Immigrant Rights Clinic, the New York Civil Liberties Union and Families for Freedom.

The New York Civil Liberties Union today called on Suffolk County officials to immediately adopt U.S. Department of Justice recommendations that will enhance public safety by improving police relations with immigrant residents.

Following New York Civil Liberties Union advocacy, the Hempstead Volunteer Fire Department has amended its admission requirements to allow non-citizens to serve as volunteer firefighters. The admissions policy, which previously required that only U.S. citizens could be considered to serve as volunteers, was recently revised by the Fire Department’s governing council.