Learning Gap in Schools

Clarke Leads Effort to Close Learning Gap in Schools

BROOKLYN, NY: Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke (NY-09) issued the following statement discussing a letter to the FCC pushing to reform the E-Rate program to accommodate distanced learning: Last week, Congresswoman Clarke led a group of her colleagues in an effort to push the FCC to do more to close the Learning Gap. “As we await the rollout of coronavirus vaccines in the coming months, we must not lose sight of the immediate needs of Congresswoman Clarke students that have been hurt the most by this pandemic. Nearly 30% of all US Editorial credit: lev radin / Shutterstock.com households lack broadband access rising coronavirus pandemic, this funding has wireless Internet access. If the FCC to over 40% for low-income households. largely gone unutilized as schools and reconsiders its approach to the authority While many schools went remote in libraries predominantly remain closed. of the E-Rate program in light of the new order to help slow the spread of the virus, Local jurisdictions have been forced to realities created by the pandemic, up to these students have been effectively scramble to help bridge this digital divide $4.15 billion could become available to pushed out of school and left to fend for or face the consequences as students fall help provide connectivity to those in themselves. This disparate impact on the behind their peers. need. student population will only compound The E-Rate Program can help alleviate “The scars from this pandemic will stay pre-existing inequities in academic some of the burden by providing funding with us for years to come. With this achievement throughout the public to cover some of the cost of more cre- effort, we hope that we can start that school system,” Clarke said. ative approaches taken by school dis- healing process now,” Clarke concluded. Currently, the FCC only authorizes E- tricts. For example, these funds could be Read the full text of the letter at Rate funds for efforts to wire school buildings and libraries. In light of the used to help pay for New York City’s tablet program to help give students www.cawnyc.coml

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Initial Delivery of COVID-19 Vaccine/continued from page 1

State Expects to Receive Vaccines December 15 if All Safety and Efficacy Approvals Are Granted

New York Expects to Receive Additional Vaccine Allocations from Pfizer and Moderna This Month

Positive Testing Rate in All Focus Zone Areas is 5.88 Percent; New York State Positivity Outside All Focus Zone Areas is 4.21 Percent

Statewide Positivity Rate is 4.63 Percent

cations of vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna later this month. "As we continue to move through the holiday season, the good news is that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, but unfortunately it is still a ways away and we are now faced with a set of challenges to overcome before we get there. Not only is the number of COVID-19 cases rising virtually everywhere, but they are stemming from a new source, with nearly 70 percent of cases being traced back to households and private gatherings," Governor Cuomo said. "The federal government has also informed us that New York will be getting its first 170,000 doses of the vaccine in the coming weeks, and while that is certainly welcomed news, the federal vaccination plan not only overlooks the black, brown, and poor communities, but its data sharing provisions will dissuade the undocumented community from getting a vaccination. Winning the war against COVID has to be an inclusive process and only by everyone working together will we be successful. While we continue to fight to make the federal plan more inclusive, effective and fair, New Yorkers need to do their part to help limit the spread." The Governor noted that the positive testing rate in all focus areas under the state's Micro-Cluster strategy is 5.88 percent, and outside the focus zone areas is 4.21 percent. Within the focus areas, 49,027 test results were reported yesterday, yielding 2,882 positives. In the remainder of the state, not counting these focus areas, 144,524 test results were reported, yielding 6,091 positives.l

Discriminatory Treatment of Haitians/continued from page 1

cation is racial hostility. In the lawsuit, Al Otro Lado, et. al., v. Wolf, plaintiffs argue that the administration’s motivation for the turnback policy is a desire to deter asylum seekers from coming to the United States. This amicus brief—filed on behalf of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti, and immigration scholars—helps explain how the historically discriminatory treatment of Haitian and Black migrants informs current policy choices, including the treatment of asylum seekers, who are largely Black, Indigenous, and other people of color. Many trace the turnback policy to the arrival of a large number of Haitians in Tijuana, on the U.S.-Mexico border, in May 2016. In response, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) applied a practice known as “metering” to the Haitian migrants. When metering, CBP officials refuse to process certain noncitizens, including asylum seekers, when they arrive at the border, instead making them wait in Mexico until some future—and often unspecified—date. The metering of Haitians in May 2016 was not the first—nor would it be the last—time that Haitians and other Black migrants were discriminated against in U.S. immigration policy. The brief puts the turnback policy in the context of discriminatory immigration laws. This history started with the first U.S. naturalization law in 1790, which only allowed “free white person[s]” to become U.S. citizens through naturalization. It took nearly 100 years and the passage of the 14th Amendment—guaranteeing equal protection under the law— before the law was amended to include persons of “African nativity and . . . descent.” The amicus brief also describes repeated previous attempts by the U.S. government to keep Haitians from seeking protection in this country. These policies involved both preventing Haitians from making it to the United States and making life more difficult for them here. For example, the U.S. government formed the Mass Immigration Emergency Plan in 1983 after Haitians began coming to the United States in large numbers. This plan created 10,000 beds for immigration detention purposes. Prior to the 1980’s, the government rarely detained people for immigration violations. Haitians detained under the new plan took their cases to court. A federal court found that “more Haitians are being detained and for longer periods of time than non-Haitians.” The court also found that non-Haitians had a better chance of being released at the border with a date to check-in with immigration authorities than Haitians. Recently, the Trump administration ended the Haitian Family Reunification Parole Program and Temporary Protected Status for Haitians, which provided temporary immigration relief to those impacted by the devasting 2010 earthquake in Haiti. It also removed Haiti from the list of countries whose citizens could participate in certain temporary U.S. work visa programs. “The indisputable common denominator for this disparate treatment of Haitians and Africans is the color of their skin,” the brief argues. It has nothing to do with “capacity constraints, or even on the legitimacy of migrants’ asylum claims” but is based on the Trump administration’s exclusionist agenda, “perpetuating racist and xenophobic opposition to Haitian and Black migrants.” Following the metering of Haitians in the summer of 2016 in Tijuana, metering and similar practices spread to ports of entry across the U.S.-Mexico border. These practices were applied to asylum seekers regardless of nationality, though largely still Black, Indigenous, and other people of color. Part of our nation’s struggle with its history of systemic racism is recognizing and addressing the past. For migrants of African descent, particularly Haitians, our past includes disproportionate detention rates, higher bonds, a higher percentage of family detention, and “among the highest asylum denial rates, when compared to their non-African peers,” the brief’s authors write. We cannot ignore these realities as we seek justice and understanding of our current immigration law and policy.l