Immigrants Told: 'This Land is Your Land, Too'

More than four million first-generation immigrants live in New York State. Government officials, community activists and activists working for immigrants often talk about the many complex issues that immigrants face. But people who care for the different needs of immigrants often have trouble agreeing on a plan of action. Today, we go to a conference designed to change that.

Cesar A. Perales is the secretary of state for New York State. He spoke at a conference called “This Land is Your Land, Too.”

“I think the importance of today is that we’re seeing representatives of the community-based agencies, not-for-profit groups who work with immigrants coming down, sitting with government officials both at the New York City, state and even the federal government level, learning about each other, wanting to work with one another to ensure that the system works well.”

Mr. Perales says his state has an economic interest in welcoming immigrants.

“From a very selfish perspective, these newcomers are very, very important to our economy. They provide labor. They start businesses. And so we wanna to make sure that immigrants will stay in New York, understand that they are wanted in New York.”

Nisha Agarwal is New York City’s commissioner for immigrant affairs. She wants to make it easier for immigrants to stay in the city. She supports efforts to help undocumented immigrants become U.S. citizens one day -- or at least receive legal permission to stay.

“People’s lives are transformed. They’re, they can be pulled out of poverty and stay out of poverty if they have appropriate legal status.”

Ms. Agarwal says the immigration rules now in place hurt families.

“Breadwinners being deported and permanently removed from their family -- kids entering (the) foster care system because of that, and just people living in fear because they don’t have appropriate immigration status. That’s not in anybody’s interest.”

She says one recent study found that 25 percent of young immigrants were able to stay in the United States legally, but they did not know it.

“They’ve been living undocumented and they don’t have to be. And I think that’s astounding.”

Camille Mackler is a lawyer for the New York Immigration Coalition, which organized the conference. She says providing correct legal information to immigrants living in cities and in rural areas can be difficult -- but for different reasons.

“In New York City, we face communities that are a lot more insular, a lot more closed-in on themselves, where we’re having a hard time getting the trust of the communities to have them to come out and meet with representatives outside of their communities to get help. Upstate, the problem is that they’re spread out, they’re a lot more widespread, and they are also not participating in any sort of civic life -- they’re not part of the towns. They purposely stay outside of the towns. They fear profiling, they fear discrimination, and they fear law enforcement.”

The New York Immigration Coalition operates a program to train citizens who are not lawyers. Other groups make it easier for immigrants to attend English classes, and to connect skills with job training. They also work with immigrants to help them start a business. They want immigrants to know that this land is their land, too.

词汇解析

community

难度：4星核心词汇，属常用3000词

英汉解释

n.社区;社会;公众;共同体;团体;共享;共有;[生]群落

参考例句

用作名词 (n.)

Community colleges have become popular and their enrollments have increased rapidly.

社区大学日渐增多，报名人数迅速增长。

The political community is composed of a number of diverse economic and functional groups.

政治共同体由一系列在经济上和功能上不同的团体组成。

complex

难度：4星核心词汇，属常用3000词

英汉解释

adj.复杂的;合成的;复合的

n.综合体;复合体;[医]综合症状;[心]情结

参考例句

用作形容词 (adj.)

They also provide composable functionality required to support complex, large-scale systems.

并提供可复合的功能以支持复杂的大规模系统。

用作名词 (n.)

An inferiority complex is very harmful to you and is the greatest obstacle .

自卑心是最伤害自己的，是最大的障碍。

federal

难度：3星常用词汇，属常用6000词

英汉解释

adj.联邦制的;联邦政府的;同盟的

n.联邦主义者;同盟盟友

参考例句

用作形容词 (adj.)

Switzerland is a federal republic.

瑞士是联邦制的共和国。

Expenditures by the Federal Government have been steadily pared.

联邦政府的开支正在逐渐削减。

ensure

难度：4星核心词汇，属常用3000词

英汉解释

vt.担保;保证;使安全;确保

参考例句

用作及物动词 (vt.)

The doctors were zealous in their efforts to ensure the survival of premature babies.

医生们在努力保证早产婴儿成活方面热情很高。

If you want to ensure that you catch the plane, take a taxi.

你要想确保能赶上那班飞机，就坐出租车去吧。

immigrant

难度：3星常用词汇，属常用6000词

英汉解释

n.移民;侨民

参考例句

用作名词 (n.)

He admitted that he was an illegal immigrant.

他承认他是非法移民。

His father is of native Indian extraction and his mother an immigrant Italian.

他父亲有印第安土著血统，母亲是意大利侨民。

numerous

难度：3星常用词汇，属常用6000词

英汉解释

adj.为数众多的;许多

参考例句

用作形容词 (adj.)

The Earth is only one of the numerous planets in the universe.

地球只是宇宙中众多星球中的一个。

Numerous interruptions have prevented me from finishing my work.

我屡遭搅扰以致工作未能完成。