for breaking news visit www.qns.com MARCH 10, 2016 • The queens CourieR 27 Immigrant small businesses victims to double standards BY ASEMBLYMAN RON KIM oped Almost 1,000 small business owners and workers, mostly of Chinese and Korean descent, traveled to Albany for the first time on Feb. 29. For most of them, it was their first taste of advocacy and civic engagement at the state capitol. I will be championing a new legislation that will require state agencies to track and report the race, gender and location of the owner of businesses it inspects and penalizes. Mostly first-generation immigrants, these owners and workers have invested everything they have into their small businesses. They’ve bought into the alluring American Dream, one that promises an equal opportunity for success for those who work hard and abide by the rules. Unfortunately the immigrant small business community has unwittingly become the safest sacrifice for an apathetic governor in need of some quick political points to score with anti-business groups. Under the guise of protecting workers, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo used his unilateral emergency powers to target, punish and make examples out of the predominantly Asian-owned nail salon industry, even as no data exists to support a higher level of misconduct or mistreatment of employees in these businesses compared to others. As a historically unorganized and unvocal group of immigrant-owned small businesses, nail salons are the perfect targets. Even as the state bill that I sponsored and passed curtailed the governor’s ability to selectively police the nail salon segment of the greater beauty enhancement industry, the governor bypassed the law, using emergency regulations to impose unreachable mandates to just this one community. The administration’s selective crackdown was based on a political calculation that few groups would come to the defense of immigrant small business owners. When these immigrant business owners, many lacking fluency in English, pleaded their case with the governor’s office, they were often intimidated and mocked by the governor’s staff. In one meeting, the governor’s own counsel yelled, “How dare you speak up! We could shut you down tomorrow if we want!” These nail salon owners surely received less respect and attention than the other more powerful industries that have lobbied against overregulation. The same independent investigation and careful diligence that usually occurs before the government implements any new business regulation is casually bypassed. The immigrant small business owners’ difficulty or inability to obtain sensibly priced wage bonds due to lack of credit history was simply ignored. Nail salon owners, many of whom started out as salon workers themselves, are the biggest providers of employment opportunities to fellow immigrants. When the nail salon industry is decimated, the consequences to workers, primarily female minorities who have little opportunity elsewhere, will be catastrophic. Clearly protecting these immigrant workers was less the objective than scoring a political point. After nine months of targeted crackdowns by the state, 54 percent of nail salons have laid off employees and 17 percent have closed based on an industry survey of 194 stores. The demise of the industry is also supported by numerous anecdotes reported to my office on a daily basis. Hopefully the bill I introduce, cosponsored by state Senator Jesse Hamilton, will bring more transparency to the New York State Department of Labor’s inspections and prevent selective enforcement of the law to immigrant minority-owned businesses. Growing up, my parents ran a small grocery store in upper Manhattan. They worked 14 hours a day and never took vacation. They were powerless to fight back against years of targeted enforcement by government agencies, and had no choice but to file for bankruptcy. Look around today and you rarely see the Korean-American-owned grocers that used to populate our neighborhoods. Today, when you stop by the corner of where my family once owned our piece of the American Dream, there is a big chain retailer. I often wonder if all of my parents’ sacrifices and hard work could have led to success if only they had a fair shot. Assemblyman Kim represents the 40th Assembly District, which covers most of Flushing. It’s time to ‘ban the box’ in higher education BY WILLIE TRENT When you’ve gotten in trouble with the law in the past, sticking to the straight and narrow isn’t always as easy as it seems. Even when people with a criminal history decide to turn their lives around, the collateral consequences of past mistakes can make that transition incredibly difficult. This is especially true for formerly incarcerated people like me, who are trying to better ourselves through higher education — but get deterred by application questions that force us to reveal our criminal pasts. These checkboxes discourage otherwise hopeful students from pursuing their dreams of becoming educated, thriving members of society — which is why we need to “ban the box” in higher education now. My childhood on Long Island was difficult. An only child, my father was murdered when I was 5 years old, and my mother battled chemical dependence. In school, I was smart and athletic, but I acted out. I was first put into the system at age 14, then rearrested at 15. By 17, I had already served time and was back out on the street, this time selling drugs to get by. When I was 30, I got out of prison and realized that I needed to make drastic changes or I’d waste my life. But it wasn’t until I tried to apply for college that I realized just how hard it would be to turn away from a life of crime and create a better future for myself. I applied to Suffolk County Community College in 2008. During that process, I was asked to check a box indicating whether or not I had ever been convicted of a felony. That question alone was so intimidating, that I almost stopped applying right then and there. Would they reject me if I said yes? Or, if I were accepted, would my peers and professors know about my past? Would I truly get a fresh start? A recent study on the use of check boxes at SUNY colleges found that I wasn’t alone: two out of every three applicants who face the box never finish the application due to either fear of stigma, or extensive application requirements. This means too many promising students giving up their dreams of bettering their lives — and potentially going back to old habits. I was rejected from Suffolk County CC the first time, but asked to reapply two years later. The process was long and intimidating, since they placed a heavy emphasis on my criminal background. I was asked to write a fivepage essay, provide my rap sheet, and obtain letters from my parole officer and a forensic therapist. Though I was eventually accepted, an old charge sent me back to prison before I could begin my classes. When I got out, the first thing I did was try to get my spot back at Suffolk County CC, but they no longer wanted me as a student. I eventually connected with a reentry program that helped to point me in the direction of schools that don’t ask questions about conviction. Now, eight years after my first attempt, I begin classes at LaGuardia Community College next month. Though I face a four-hour commute every day, it is a small burden to endure compared to the process of getting accepted. We know that education reduces the likelihood that people with a criminal past will re-offend. Sixtysix percent of incarcerated nondegree earners return to prison within three years of release; the likelihood drops to 5.6 percent for bachelor’s degree recipients and less than 1 percent for master’s degree holders. So why are we deterring people from leaving crime behind and becoming productive members of society? My story is not unique. Every day, potential students are discouraged from the educational opportunities they deserve. But that could all change — if our state legislators pass the Fair Access to Education Act, colleges would be prohibited from considering applicants’ past arrests or convictions during the admission process. We need to ban the box at all higher education institutions, and let formerly incarcerated students have a fair shot at their future. We’ve already served time for our mistakes.
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