A United Voice for Immigrants
Newcomers organize to increase influence

by Merle English

New York Newsday
October 4, 2000

"They were fanning the flames of hatred," Pu-Folkes said of the billboard sponsors. "They were saying a lot of things to pit one community against another." One of the billboards, the product of ProjectUSA, referred to immigrants coming in every day and motorists being tired of waiting in traffic, Pu-Folkes said.

To strike back at such a message, Pu-Folkes-born in the United States of a Jamaican father and Burmese mother-got together a group of Queens community leaders, activists and "everyday individuals" to provide "an intelligent, factual response." "We put money together, got business owners to give money," said Pu-Folkes, an attorney who manages the pro bono program at New York Lawyers for the Public Interest as director of the Private Bar Involvement Program. "I was raising money on the streets and put together a campaign to respond to ProjectUSA," he said.

ProjectUSA is an anti-immigration advocacy group based in Long Island City and founded by Craig Nelsen that has put up billboards across the country.

Nelsen could not be reached for comment.

The result of Pu-Folkes' effort was New Immigrant Community Empowerment (NICE), an organization which describes its mission as "committed to ensuring through grass-roots outreach efforts that immigrants are organized for action and influence in civic, governmental and political affairs.

"We put up posters on the subway platform, in stations and along the No. 7 line to send a message to ProjectUSA and communities at large that immigrants are speaking out, that we're not going to stay quiet and endure, that immigrants stand with fair, decent-minded people and that the majority of people reject their [anti-immigrant] message." Community organizing wasn't new to Pu-Folkes, 31, who said he was involved for 10 years in community work, and served on Community Board 8. Crusading for immigrants was a natural for him.

"I've always had an interest in immigrant advocacy," he said. Noting his parents' background, Pu- Folkes said, "I lived through the hurdles they had to overcome and are still overcoming, the immigrant issues, the racial barriers, navigating the American system.

"I'm half the age of my parents, yet when it comes to how this system works, they come to me, because I'm [born] an American and I may think and interact a little differently," he said. "It's created a sense of awareness in me that government needs to do a lot more outreach, culturally and linguistically, to immigrants." So his organization won't wait to react to anti-immigrant issues but will instead work on a "proactive agenda," that crosses cultural, ethnic, racial and religious lines, Pu-Folkes said.

"We can't let people like ProjectUSA speak for us and define what the issues are for our community: health care, making sure services are given in a fair manner, business and education opportunities, housing, the specific items that are important to our community," he said. "There's so many overlapping concerns among immigrants, and there is strength in numbers." More than 700 individuals and groups have joined New Immigrant Community Empowerment since its formation. About 40 are active, Pu-Folkes said. Members are involved in a number of projects, including workshops on health care, business and education needs of immigrants. Some projects are affiliated with the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Asian-American Legal Defense and Education Fund, and the Census Bureau.

More than 1,000 immigrants recently sent in what Pu-Folkes called "a rapid-response postcard" the organization posted on its Web page after the American Immigration Control Foundation sent out surveys in Rockland County that Pu-Folkes characterized as "alarmist in nature." "Whenever we see things like this we get very concerned," he said. "They blame immigrants for all of our social ills." Everyday matters, such as the condition of local amenities, are also of concern to the group. The Fountain of the Planets at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park has been targeted for a cleanup drive.

Three months ago, Pu-Folkes said, he saw a dead swan there floating in almost stagnant water which had "an unnatural amount of algae" growing on it.

"It's not maintained regularly, so there's a buildup of garbage. It's become an eyesore," he said.

His group organized a protest in June after receiving what Pu-Folkes said was "an inadequate response" to letters sent to the Parks Department requesting a renovation of the fountain.

Since then, Queens Borough President Claire Shulman and Estelle Cooper, deputy commissioner of Queens parks, have indicated their willingness to work with the communities, Pu-Folkes said.

"Leadership from the top has responded in a genuine way," he said. "We don't take that lightly." The advent of the new advocacy group is timely, members say.

"This is important," said Mohammad Minnulah, 52, a pharmacist who emigrated from Bangladesh 21 years ago. "Recently in Congress a lot of things have been done against new immigrants, like taking away a lot of social benefits. This has become a need now. They're doing a lot of things against immigration. It has become a need for us to raise our voice and combine our feelings and get our rightful share." Queens Village resident Jocelyn Mayas, an activist and founder of Queens Empowerment Center for Haitian Immigrants, said, "When I met with Bryan [Pu-Folkes] and the rest of the folks, I fit right in.

"I'm getting more information and becoming stronger and more educated so I can educate my community," Mayas said. "NICE could not have come at a better time." New Immigrant Community Empowerment can be reached online at its Web site, www.nynice.org.