BBP Reynoso Launches Maternal Health Education Campaign

Multimedia, Multicultural Maternal Health Public Education Campaign Launched

BROOKLYN, NY: Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso on November 16, launched a multimedia, multicultural maternal health public education campaign to connect Brooklynites with information and resources for healthier pregnancies. The campaign includes English, Spanish, and Haitian Creole ads at select Brooklyn bus stops, urban panels at subway stations, and digital ads on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube that lead people to an online resource guide. The ads at bus shelters and subway stations can be found in the primarily Black, Brown, Caribbean, and Latino communities where the highest rates of maternal mortality and morbidity have been reported, including Bed-Stuy, Brownsville, Bushwick, Canarsie, Crown Heights, East Flatbush, East New York, Flatbush, and Williamsburg. Entirely guided by the Borough President’s Maternal Health Taskforce, the campaign is his latest in a string of maternal health announcements aimed at making Brooklyn the safest place in New York City to have a baby as a Black or Brown person. One-third of pregnancyrelated deaths in New York City are residents of Brooklyn, with the ratio on average 9.4 times higher for Black mothers compared to their white counterparts and the crisis in maternal health most acute among Haitian women. Borough President Reynoso’s $250,000 maternal health public education campaign was designed with this in mind. “Every day, we’re making this borough a little bit safer for Brooklynites dreaming of growing their families,” said Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso. “To truly end the maternal mortality crisis facing our Black and Brown mothers will take longterm and large-scale structural change – like our upcoming renovations to the maternal healthcare facilities at our public hospitals –but in the meantime, there are steps we can take right now to empower our expecting parents through their pregnancy journey. I’m so grateful to my Maternal Health Taskforce for their incredible expertise as we take yet another step toward saving lives and making Brooklyn the safest place for someone to have a baby.”l The campaign’s resource guide can be found atwww.brooklynusa.org/healthypregnancy St Vincent & the Grenadines/ continued from page 10 Upcoming Special Programs As part of the effort to reach community members, the consulate of St Vincent and the Grenadines will set up a satellite passport office at Friends of Crown Heights in Brooklyn. This will be launched during a community event. According to the Consul General, they realized that many people were busy. Many of them work during the weekend and cannot make time to visit the consulate, so we are bringing the consulate closer to the people. "So, we're bringing the consulate to our constituents. And at that event, we intend to have a health fair and insurance fair. Where someone can speak to our people about funding and scholarships, so it's for the Caribbean and black people. It's going to be a combination of many things happening on Saturday, December 3," says Consul General McIntosh. He reaffirmed their willingness to share information and serve the Caribbean and CARICOM community. "And we are always happy to share information with the diaspora. As a Caribbean and CARICOM community," he explained, "We can exist in the great United States of America and maintain our values and disciplines. We must ensure that the next generation of children born here in the United States also recognizes our home country as their own."l

BBP Antonio Reynoso speaking at the launch with other elected officials and members of the Maternal Task Force. Photo courtesy: BBP’s Office.

IMMIGRATION

12 Hiring Foreign Seasonal Workers Doesn’t Hurt American Workers, New Study Finds

BY WALTER EWING

Do fewer U.S. workers get hired when employers also hire temporary seasonal labor from abroad? A new study of firms applying for H-2B visas suggests that the answer is no. The H-2B visa allows workers from abroad to enter the United States to fill temporary, non-agricultural jobs that do not require a high level of formal education. The number of new H-2B visas that can be issued each year is capped at 66,000 and visa recipients are randomly selected through a lottery. By analyzing hiring at firms that participate in this lottery, the new study finds that firms which hire larger numbers of H-2B workers experience increased production with no adverse effects on the employment of U.S.-born workers. In some cases, the numbers of H-2B workers and U.S. workers employed by a firm increase together.

The H-2B program U.S. employers wishing to hire H-2B workers must first obtain a temporary labor certification from the Department of Labor (DOL). For an employer to receive certification, DOL must determine that: (1.) not enough qualified U.S.born workers are available to fill the temporary jobs for which the employer wants to hire H-2B workers; and (2.) the employment of H-2B workers will not adversely affect the wages or working conditions of U.S.-born workers performing similar jobs. In recent years, the demand for H-2B workers has far exceeded the annual cap of 66,000, and demand is often so high that DOL and DHS exercise their authority to add additional H-2B visas to the pool throughout the year. As a result, DOL conducts a lottery to determine which of the firms that applied for temporary labor certification will actually receive certification. Employers who receive the temporary labor certification must then apply to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) for permission to employ H-2B workers. Once USCIS approves the petition, foreign workers can apply for an H-2B visa from a U.S. embassy or consulate in their home country. Some foreign workers may not need a visa if they are already in the United States and received USCIS approval for an extension of their current H-2B status or a change from a different status to H2B status. The longest a foreign worker in H-2B status can remain in the United States is three years. The worker then must remain outside of the United States for three months before they can be readmitted in H-2B status. The spouse and unmarried children under the age of 21 may accompany an H-2B visa recipient to the United States, but they are not allowed to work while they are here. New study finds no decrease in employment of U.S.-born workers The new study surveyed firms that participated in DOL’s 2021 lottery for processing of H-2B temporary labor certifications and compared those that won with those that lost. Firms that were winners of the lottery—and were therefore able to hire more H-2B workers—experienced an increase in revenue. The winning firms also experienced either a slight increase in the employment of U.S.-born workers or no change at all. There was no evidence that hiring more H-2B workers resulted in a decline in employment for U.S.-born workers. The study also found that employers which lost the H-2B lottery did not tend to hire more U.S. workers. As a result of losing the lottery, those firms generally hired fewer workers overall and suffered from lower revenue than those firms which were able to hire more foreign workers. The economists carrying out the study suggest that this result occurs because there are “few substitutes” in rural areas for the labor carried out by individuals receiving H-2B visas, lend-

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“Title 42 Has Never Been About Public Health or Safety”

BY AMERICA’S VOICE

Washington, DC: Late November 15, U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan ruled that Title 42 violated the law, holding that the policy was “arbitrary and capricious.” This morning, Judge Sullivan granted the Biden administration’s request to stay the ruling for five weeks, meaning that the federal government has until December 21 to end Title 42 – a public health measure used as a pretext by Stephen Miller to restrict asylum and ruled as unnecessary by the CDC. The following is a statement from Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice: “Keeping Title 42 in place has perpetuated the cruel legacy of the Trump Administration and made border enforcement much more difficult and chaotic. It’s only fitting that Judge Sullivan’s important ruling came on the same day that Donald Trump announced another run for office and only a week after the American people largely rejected the extremist vision of Stephen Miller’s approach to the border and immigration, the tens of millions he spent on ugly nativism, and many of the GOP candidates who took an extreme position on immigration in the midterms. Title 42 has never been about public health or safety. Instead, it was a central front in the Trump/Miller war on immigrants and was used as a pretext to trample on America’s proud tradition of offering safety to migrants fleeing oppression, violence and death by offering them a legal process by which they can ask for asylum. Even as a border control measure, Title 42 has failed, helped drive up border apprehension statistics and forced the flow of asylum seekers away from our border ports of entry. It also has been a humanitarian disaster, evicting many of those seeking safety back to danger without allowing them to even seek asylum. This is an opportunity for a reset for the Biden administration to enact a functional, orderly and humane set of policies that upholds and advances our values and laws. The U.S. must recognize that the complicated dynamics that lead to forced migration do not begin or end and cannot only be addressed at the U.S. southern border nor solely through deterrencefocused policy. Now it is also the time for the President and Democrats to reaffirm their vision for immigration, border management, regional cooperation, asylum and refugees. The American people are clearly uncomfortable with the Trump and Miller approach that dominated GOP messaging during the midterms, and now there is a renewed opening for action.”l ing support to the need for the program.

Immigration and employment The study supports the conclusion of many economists that immigration expands the job market for U.S.-born workers. This occurs in several ways. First, immigrant workers and U.S.-born workers tend to have different skill sets, so they complement each other rather than competing for the same jobs. Second, immigrant workers spend most of their wages in the U.S. economy, which creates new jobs by increasing consumer demand. Third, U.S. businesses respond to the presence of immigrant workers and consumers by expanding their operations within the United States rather than abroad. And fourth, immigrants expand the U.S. labor market when they create new businesses. The new study and the findings of many other economists undermine the common myth that every job filled by an immigrant worker is one less job available to a U.S.-born worker. In fact, immigration increases job opportunities for the majority of U.S.-born workers.l

Group of Guatemalan migrants crosses the border of Mexico and the United States to try to ask political asylum Editorial credit: David Peinado Romero / Shutterstock.com Hiring Foreign Seasonal Workers/ continued from page 12

Read more at www.cawnyc.com

Join the Best Online Paralegal Program

BY THE CHAMBER COALITION

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Is Being a Paralegal Worth It? Yes. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects a 10% job growth between now and 2029. The median salary nationwide in 2019 was $51,740, and the average mean wage was $61,810. It truly is a prestigious and significant profession. Simply put, paralegals help people. They help their employers be more efficient in their jobs, increase a firm's revenue and productivity, and help the clients. A career as a paralegal can be rewarding professionally and personally and offers a unique opportunity to help others; options vary, depending on the paralegal's practice area. l

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