Mayor Walsh reaffirmed his support in favor of the preliminary injunction blocking U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) fee increases, during an immigrant-serving media roundtable on Thursday, October 1. He also provided updates on housing stability and COVID-19 cases, as flu season starts.
The roundtable was hosted by the Mayor’s Office for Immigrant Advancement (MOIA) and facilitated by its director Yusufi Vali, with guest presentations from Rita Nieves, Interim Executive Director of the Boston Public Health Commission, and Katie Forde, Operations Manager at the Office of Housing Stability.
Vali kicked off the event by briefing around 20 outlets on MOIA’s two summer and fall 2020 programs: the Dreamers’ Fellowship Program for Immigrant Youth and Immigrants Lead Boston. Immigrants Lead Boston is a 12-week course teaching Boston immigrants the civic engagement tools to navigate City government, express concerns to City officials, and advocate for their local communities, especially during the pandemic. For its 18 spots, Immigrants Lead Boston received 110 total applications, with representation from 41 countries of origin, 14 Boston neighborhoods, 37 different language speakers, and ages ranging from 18 to 41.
The Dreamers’ Fellowship Program ran its pilot for 50 youth recipients of DACA. Participants were divided between three nonprofits: the Caribbean Youth Club, Centro Presente, and Brazilian Workers Center. Each of the DREAMers were then given a stipend to support their families with rent, utilities, food, and other household expenses. Vali said, “Most critically, what they [the nonprofits] shared was that, especially at one of our East Boston nonprofits, some of these kids would be the same ones that would be recruited for gangs. Some of them would be getting into selling drugs if they weren’t in these programs.”
Following the updates, Mayor Walsh addressed the Trump administration’s anti-immigration rhetoric, as well as its doubling of the application cost to apply for U.S. citizenship. On September 29, a federal court temporarily blocked that fee increase, which would have raised the immigration application fee from $725 to $1,170, and the naturalization application fee from $640 to $1,160, if filed online. It would cost $1,170, in paper filing on October 2.
“I congratulate the court, applaud them. Citizenship should not be a wealth test, American citizenship, in my opinion, is about what you believe, not what you can pay,” said Walsh. In the wake of the federal injunction, there remains concern that it is only a temporary solution for immigrants worried about high fees, since USCIS and the government may appeal to the Ninth Circuit. Vali said that the Mayor’s Office would put together a more long-term strategy in the coming weeks to prepare for that possibility of the rule coming back into effect. Still, for now, their focus lies on working with Project Citizenship to ensure those who qualify take advantage of the fee waiver and apply now.
Walsh also urged people to respond to the census before the deadline of October 31. This deadline was reinstated, following a lawsuit led by several cities and civil rights groups against the Trump administration for cutting the 2020 census short. This had happened when the administration moved the deadline up a month to the end of September. Trump’s rushed census timeline was described as “certainly a blatant attempt to undercount communities of color and immigrants” by Walsh.
As of the morning of October 1, “only 58.5% of Boston’s households have self-responded,” according to Ana Vivas, the Deputy Press Secretary for Mayor Walsh. The actual number could be a little higher because census takers are still going door to door, she said. Walsh expressed that, “But we’re still relatively low in Chinatown. We are under 10 years ago at this point.”
Another area of concern discussed was recent increased COVID-19 activity, in terms of the number of cases and positivity test rates. September 30, the night before the event, Boston moved into the red zone, meaning they have had more than 8 cases per 100,000 residents in the past 14 days. “Right now, we’re at about 8.5 per 100,000 population — roughly 60 cases per day that we’re seeing here in Boston … It’s not a concern of shutting things down at this particular moment. But we are keeping a very close eye on that.”
In-person learning started the same day as the open table, when the COVID positivity rate was still 3.5%. Walsh stipulated that “Keeping our students and teachers and school safe is our number one priority. We are moving forward on a phased-in approach, only if the positivity rating stays below 4%.” Since then, Boston has delayed plans to reopen the city’s schools, after rates climbed higher than 4%.
Rates are exceptionally high in East Boston, which had a 7.7% positivity rate during the week of September 20 to 26. “We’re seeing about half our cases coming from Latino communities,” for which the rate is now about the same as that of African Americans, specified Walsh. “We’re seeing about half of our cases coming from people under the age of 29. Part of that is due to colleges, and part of it is due to people still having parties, large gatherings, and not being safe.”
Rita Nieves, Interim Executive Director of the Boston Public Health Commission, confirmed that as of September 30, 52% of new cases are in residents younger than 29. She highlighted that while younger people tend to have a lower risk for the virus, they do have a greater chance to spread COVID-19 to higher-risk populations, which is particularly worrisome as flu season approaches.
Because different viruses cause COVID-19 and the flu, it is possible to have both at the same time. A test may be required in that case to confirm which one you have due to them sharing similar symptoms. With competing resources, tests, and systems for the flu and COVID-19, Nieves stressed the importance for everyone to do their part in “preventing hospitalizations from the flu by getting vaccinated.” Masking and social distancing behaviors for the coronavirus also help prevent the spread of the flu.
Also quickly approaching is October 17, the end of the moratorium put in place to assist renters economically hit hard by the pandemic. Katie Forde, Operations Manager at the Office of Housing Security, broke down the city’s post eviction moratorium plan into three parts: communications, legal assistance, and financial assistance.
Forde said, “We’re going to send out a mailer to 42,000 plus households that we feel are in high-risk eviction areas before the moratorium ends that explains their rights as tenants. We’ve also redesigned our OHS webpage to make it more user friendly for eviction defense.” The Tenant Rights mailer is in the process of being translated into several languages. As for the legal and financial assistance components, OHS has added two additional attorneys to their nonprofit partners, hired a housing court navigator, as well as planned to host multiple virtual weekly legal clinics for eviction defense and reopen the Rental Relief Fund.
When the moratorium lifts, a federal moratorium, known as the CDC eviction moratorium, will go into effect, known as the CDC eviction moratorium. It remains unknown as of now how the housing court will react to this moratorium. But Forde has an important reminder: “The current federal administration has said that through the end of the year if you have lost work or financial resources due to COVID-19, you cannot be evicted for non-payment of rent, but there’s a kicker — you actually have to fill out the form and give that to your landlord.”