Rights This Way

During President Trump’s time in office, immigrant rights were pushed front and center as the administration seemed to delight in finding new ways to inflict pain and cruelty on people fleeing persecution. When President Biden was elected two years ago, he promised to undo the harms caused by Trump and to usher in a more humane immigration system. But in many ways, the Biden administration has doubled down on some of the worst aspects of Trump’s policies.

Meanwhile, politicians like Gov. Greg Abbot in Texas made headlines by bussing thousands of asylum seekers to Democrat-controlled cities like New York, claiming these so-called “sanctuary cities” were best placed to take in newly arrived immigrants.

But the truth is, here in New York State, where close to a quarter of the population was born outside the U.S., we don’t protect the rights of our immigrant residents as well as many people might assume. So what can we do to truly make our state a welcoming place for immigrants?

We speak with Zachary Ahmad, NYCLU Senior Policy Counsel, Drea Drea Herrera NYCLU Senior Organizer, and Ignacio Acevedo, NYCLU’s Hudson Valley Organizer.

Please download, subscribe, rate, and review Rights This Way. It will help more people find this podcast.

Resources:

Read more on the New York for All and Dignity Not Detention Acts.

Take action to protect immigrant communities across New York.

Sign up to volunteer and join the fight with NYCLU.

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You could end up under police suspicion just for typing words into Google. And when you step outside, an array of cameras could be watching your every move, while a police drone hundreds of feet away zooms in for a closer look at what you’re up to. Meanwhile, at your child’s school, a camera outfitted with facial recognition technology is constantly scanning students’ faces as they walk through the halls.

These scenarios are all too plausible in the over-surveilled state of New York. But as frightening as this all may sound, the solution isn’t to cower in fear. There are steps lawmakers can take to secure our privacy. We get into all this with two guests: Daniel Schwarz is the NYCLU’s Senior Privacy & Technology Strategist, and Stefanie Coyle is the Deputy Director of the NYCLU’s Education Policy Center.

Resources:

Follow our campaign on the government's drone data across New York here.

Learn more about why dragnet warrants must be outlawed here.

Read more about NY's ban on facial recognition in schools here.

For more on everything we discuss in this episode, visit nyclu.org.

For transcripts and additional information on the episodes, visit nyclu.org/en/rightsthisway.

Follow NYCLU on Twitter and Instagram.

Please download, subscribe, rate, and review Rights This Way wherever you listen to it. It will help more people find this podcast.

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In the wake of the police murder of George Floyd, New Yorkers took to the streets to protest police violence as part of the country’s largest civil rights movement in decades. In response, state lawmakers passed several bills meant to increase police transparency and accountability.

Two years later, the political atmosphere is very different. Politicians in both major political parties are pledging to increase funding, resources, and support for police departments. Many are counting on law enforcement to be the answer to many of our state’s biggest problems like homelessness, mental health care, school discipline, and more.

In the face of this return to so-called law-and-order politics, how do we advance the causes of police transparency, accountability and reform? And how do we eventually transform the role law enforcement plays in our society?

We get into all this with NYCLU assistant policy director Michael Sisitzky and NYCLU supervising attorney Bobby Hodgson.

Resources:

The Civilian Complaint Review Board database Bobby mentions can be found here.

The NYCLU report on some of the biggest findings from that database is here.

And make sure to tell state lawmakers to pass the policy transparency bill Michael talks about.

For more on everything we discuss in this episode, visit nyclu.org.

For transcripts and additional information on the episodes, visit nyclu.org/en/rightsthisway.

Follow NYCLU on Twitter and Instagram.

Please download, subscribe, rate, and review Rights This Way wherever you listen to it. It will help more people find this podcast.

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New York students face many challenges to achieving academic success, but here’s one you might not be aware of: the air they breathe. A recent NYCLU analysis found that about one-third of New York’s students go to school near a major highway. The vast majority of those students are people of color. And it turns out that the pollution students breathe has a major impact on their success and livelihood.

In this episode, we discuss the problem of highway pollution near schools as well as legislation designed to help stop it with Johanna Miller, Director of the NYCLU’s Education Policy Center, and Lanessa Owens-Chaplin, director of the Education Policy Center’s Environmental Justice Project.

You can tell Gov. Hochul to sign the SIGH Act – which we discuss in this episode – here.

For more on everything we discuss in this episode, visit nyclu.org.

For transcripts and additional information on the episodes, visit nyclu.org/en/rightsthisway.

Follow NYCLU on Twitter and Instagram.

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Today, we talk about the regressive criminal legal system rollbacks that were passed in April by state lawmakers. In 2019, the state passed laws that improved New York's bail, speedy trial, and discovery laws in ways that made our state fairer and helped reduce mass incarceration.

But ever since then, these laws have been the target of a relentless, fear-driven backlash that continues to this day. We discuss these reforms, how they were rolled back in April and where we go from here with NYCLU Policy Council, Jared Trujillo, and NYCLU senior organizer Isabelle Leva.

For more on everything we discuss in this episode, visit nyclu.org.

To tell lawmakers to hold the line on bail reform, visit nyclu.org/bail.

For transcripts and additional information on the episodes, visit nyclu.org/en/rightsthisway.

Follow NYCLU on Twitter and Instagram.

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This is our second episode on abortion rights and access in New York. In the first episode, we discussed a package of laws the state legislature passed in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision striking down Roe v. Wade. We also went into the effort to add an equal rights amendment to our state constitution and talked about efforts to fight hospital consolidation.

Today, we talk about the future of the fight for abortion rights and access in New York and how we can win it with NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman and NYCLU Assistant Policy Director Katharine Bodde. What was left on the table, what are the obstacles, and how can we get involved?

For more information on everything we discuss in both episodes, visit nyabortionaccess.org.

For transcripts and additional information on the episodes, visit nyclu.org/en/rightsthisway.

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Welcome to Rights This Way, a new podcast by the New York Civil Liberties Union focused on the civil rights and liberties issues that impact New Yorkers the most.

In today's episode, we discuss abortion rights in the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade and nearly half of U.S. states moving to totally ban abortion.

Access to abortion and other reproductive care was already nonexistent in many parts of the country – and even in New York, some people still struggle to get the care they need. After the leaked draft opinion from the Supreme Court striking down Roe, New York state legislators took action to increase funding and access to abortion.  

Then, after the final opinion was released, Gov. Hochul called a special session to pass a bill calling for an equal rights amendment – which among many other things – would protect the right to abortion in the state constitution.  

We talk about what got done and what is still left to do with two guests: NYCLU Policy Director Lee Rowland, and NYCLU Equal Justice Works Fellow Gabriella Larios.

For more on everything we talk about in this episode, visit nyabortionaccess.org.

For transcripts and additional information on the episode, visit nyclu.org/en/rightsthisway.

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