BP celebrates opening of new Immigrant
Welcome Center at Queens Borough Hall
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
As the city celebrates the
contributions of immigrants
during Immigrant Heritage
Month, Queens Borough
President Donovan Richards
Jr., alongside elected officials,
advocates and leading immigration
service providers, officially
launched the soft opening
of Queens Borough Hall’s
new Immigrant Welcome Center
with a ribbon-cutting ceremony
on Tuesday, June 15.
The Immigrant Welcome
Center is a first-of-its-kind
service hub at Queens Borough
Hall — located at 120-55
Queens Blvd. — representing
an unprecedented investment
in immigration-related
resources available for more
than 1 million immigrants
who call Queens home.
“There’s a reason why we’re
called the ‘World’s Borough.’
Every day, families from all
corners of the globe come here
to Queens to start businesses
in our neighborhoods, send
their children to our schools
and be integral parts of our
thriving communities,” Richards
said. “We could not be
prouder to open the first-ever
Immigrant Welcome Center at
Queens Borough Hall to better
serve our immigrant families
and provide a vast array of
critical services.”
More than one-third of
New York City’s 3 million immigrants
reside in Queens,
with nearly 50 percent of the
borough’s 2.4 million residents
born abroad, according to
Richards.
Beginning with the soft
launch of the center and continuing
into the future as capacity
and the variety of available
services expands, families
contacting or visiting Queens
Borough Hall will be connected
with comprehensive,
multilingual services such as
legal assistance and referrals
to community-based organizations
and city services.
The center will be staffed
by a full-time coordinator
and Richards’ director of
Immigrant Affairs – both of
whom are immigrants themselves
and fluent in Mandarin
and Spanish, respectively
— and will assist in case
management.
CUNY Citizenship Now! —
the largest university legal assistance
program in the nation
providing free and confidential
citizenship and immigration
law services — will partner
with the Queens borough
president’s office to help assist
with legal consultations. Additional
partnerships with other
service providers, as well as
city and state agencies, are
expected as the center’s operations
expand in the future.
Allan Wernick, director of
CUNY Citizenship Now!, applauded
Richards for his commitment
and efforts to create
an Immigrant Welcome Center,
bringing much-needed services
to Queens’ immigrants.
“We are pleased that CUNY
Citizenship Now! will be providing
free, high-quality immigration
assistance at the
center,” Wernick said.
According to Richards, in
order to broaden their general
appeal to the public, the office
will be utilizing social media,
while also going out to the
communities to ensure that
they know that the center is
open.
“We want people to know
when they come to Queens
Borough Hall, that this is
the people’s house. We really
mean and believe that and you
should be able to come in here
and get a one-stop shop opportunity
for services,” said Richards,
who also noted other
services provided at Borough
Hall, such as IDNYC.
TIMESLEDGER | Q 32 NS.COM | JUNE 25-JULY 1, 2021
Coinciding with the soft
launch of the center is the borough
president’s office’s firstever
language access phone
line. Non-English speakers
who call the office in search of
services facilitated by the center
will be connected to an office
staff member and a thirdparty
translator, breaking
down any potential language
barriers between the staff
member and the caller.
May Malik, deputy commissioner
of the Mayor’s Office
of Immigrant Affairs, said
they look forward to partnering
with the center to empower
and advocate for immigrant
communities across Queens.
“By focusing on language
access and connecting visitors
to city and community-based
programs, the center signals
that further supporting our
immigrant neighbors is critical
to the city’s future,” Malik
said.
Alana Cantillo, who is the
interim vice president of Advocacy
for the New York Immigration
Coalition that represents
over 200 immigrant and
refugee rights groups across
the city, said they will also
work with the borough president’s
office to ensure that the
local government continues to
prioritize improving access
and services for immigrants
throughout the city.
An immigrant from Colombia,
Cantillo recalled her experience
as an undocumented
young adult going to her local
library, where she read a short
list of countries that were
made available for naturalization,
but Colombia was not
accessible, she said.
“That feeling felt isolated. It
didn’t instill in me the virtues
that I believed in government
as a change agent to improve
society and to be accessible
to me and my family at that
time,” Cantillo said. “It’s not
only symbolic, personal and
emotional to me to be able to
connect people and my own
neighbors to this resource,
but to know that we are sort
of disrupting our notions of
what the government can and
should do, and we are able to
do that with tremendous leadership
like our Borough President
Donovan Richards.”
Local elected officials in attendance
at the ribbon-cutting
ceremony included Congresswoman
Grace Meng, Council
members Barry Grodenchik,
Peter Koo, Selvena Brooks-
Powers and James Gennaro,
and Assemblywoman Catalina
Cruz, who all commended
Richards for creating the critical
hub for immigrant families
in Queens.
It was a dream come true
for Cruz — the first “Dreamer”
to be elected in the state
Assembly — to open the center
on the ninth anniversary of
the Deferred Action for Childhood
Arrivals (DACA) Initiative,
which was established
by former President Barack
Obama on June 15, 2012.
“The Immigrant Welcome
Center at Queens Borough
Hall will be the first-of-its
kind in the state of New York,
and amongst only a handful
nationwide,” said Cruz, who
collaborated with Richards on
the proposal. “Now we have a
place where we can go and find
the help that we need. A place
that feels safe and welcoming,
and a place where you don’t
have to worry about whether
you speak the right language,
have the right status, or the
color of your skin, it doesn’t
matter. If you are an immigrant,
you are welcomed to the
center.”
As a daughter of immigrants,
Meng said Borough
Hall’s new center is a needed
investment in things such as
legal assistance and referrals
to community-based organizations
and city services.
“We must do all we can to
empower immigrants and
help them thrive. I’m proud
to help do that on the federal
level, and pleased that these
resources are being provided
locally here in our borough,”
Meng said.
According to Grodenchik,
Richards’ new Immigrant
Welcome Center will provide
a range of critical services in
a centralized location that will
immensely benefit Queens
residents.
“In a nation of immigrants,
in a city of immigrants, Queens
is a truly international place
that residents from across the
world call home,” Grodenchik
said.
The new center is open
Monday through Friday from
9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and can be contacted
via phone at 718-286-0644
and via email at welcome@
queensbp.org.
In-person visits are by appointment
only. Due to the ongoing
COVID-19 pandemic, the
center is currently not accepting
walk-ins.
Additional information
about the center can be
found at queensbp.org/immigrantwelcomecenter,
the
center’s dedicated webpage,
complete with a community
calendar and links to a wide
array of resources.
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards (second from r.) and local elected officials cut the red
ribbon at the opening of the new Immigrant Welcome Center at Queens Borough Hall.
Courtesy of Queens Borough President’s Offi ce
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