Bill Would Give Green Cards to Undocumented 9/11 Volunteers
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Version 0 of 1. Carlos Cardona sifted through and cleared rubble for four days at ground zero after the Sept. 11 attacks. Little did he know that his decision to volunteer in 2001 would ripple into the future. The exposure to toxins in the debris left him with chronic respiratory problems, with which he continues to struggle. And last month, that volunteer work led Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York to pardon Mr. Cardona, an undocumented immigrant from Colombia, for a 1990 drug conviction that had put him at risk of deportation. “For me, I feel like it was something that I had to do,” Mr. Cardona, an owner of a construction business in Queens, said, adding that he would step up again in a disaster area if he had to. Now, Mr. Cardona’s story has prompted some Democratic members of New York’s congressional delegation to propose protections against deportation for undocumented immigrants who helped after the attacks. A bill that would grant green cards to undocumented immigrants who served in the rescue, recovery and cleanup efforts after the terrorist attacks will be introduced in the House this week, Representative Joseph Crowley, of Queens, said Sunday. “They served our country when we needed a hand, and now we are only showing them, unfortunately, the back of ours,” Mr. Crowley said at a news conference outside City Hall on Sunday. “Instead of gratitude, they are being shown the door.” The legislation is likely to face an uphill battle with a Republican-controlled Congress, and with the Trump administration, which has vowed to crack down on illegal immigration. The bill currently does not have support from any Republican members of Congress, Mr. Crowley said. Mr. Cardona, 47, entered the country illegally by crossing the border with Mexico. Twenty-seven years ago, he pleaded guilty to selling a small amount of cocaine to an undercover officer, a crime that put him in jail for 45 days. That offense prevented him from obtaining legal status, even though he was married to an American citizen. The federal authorities issued an order for Mr. Cardona’s deportation in 2001 after he missed an immigration hearing. But he was allowed to stay in the country because he was receiving medical care through a federal program for those with illnesses traced to the Sept. 11 attacks. Under the James Zadroga Act of 2010, which was reauthorized in 2015, compensation and health benefits were extended to victims of Sept. 11 and workers who responded to the attacks, including immigrants who are in the United States illegally. Almost 70 percent of workers who helped in the cleanup showed respiratory symptoms, according to researchers at Mount Sinai Medical Center. After the Trump administration issued a memorandum that prioritized the deportation of undocumented immigrants convicted of a crime, Mr. Cardona was detained on Feb. 28. He was released on June 28 because Governor Cuomo pardoned him for the drug conviction — the governor’s seventh pardon since 2013 granted explicitly to remove the threat of deportation. Although he was removed from custody and his conviction was expunged, Mr. Cardona’s future in the United States still depends on the outcome of his immigration case. “We keep on fighting,” he said. Mr. Crowley, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, said there was a precedent for the legislation, in the treatment of immigrants who served in the armed forces during World War I. His bill could affect 1,000 to 2,000 unauthorized immigrants who aided in the cleanup efforts after the attacks, Mr. Crowley said. Representative Nydia M. Velázquez, a co-sponsor of the bill, said: “During the darkness of that day, we saw New Yorkers rally together to care for one another and respond to the attack. Immigrants, documented and undocumented, were among those that worked on ‘the pile,’ searching for survivors and helping our city recover.” The bill, the 9/11 Immigrant Worker Freedom Act, will be introduced by Mr. Crowley; besides Representative Velázquez, of Brooklyn, its co-sponsors are Representatives Adriano Espaillat and Jerrold Nadler, both of Manhattan. |