Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — Town Hall in Parkchester

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Just let me know where you're going to be able to stay

Speaker 1: Good

Speaker 2: evening, New York 14

My name is Jeffrey Montoya. I'm with the office of San Jose and San Jose Cortes. First off, thank you very much for joining us this evening for our town hall this month. A few housekeeping notes. And if you

Speaker 3: have any

questions, you may read them. of our common colleagues, Eva and Noreen will come take them from you. If you are joining us virtually, you can email your questions to [email redacted] or call [phone redacted]. We are grateful to be joined by our community partners here to share information and resources to our community. to our community. Please check out the tables out on the back. And now I would like to invite the congresswoman

Speaker 4: Alexandria Ocasio for a

time to give. Hey everyone, how's it going? Good

Speaker 6: afternoon

Speaker 7: So I wanted

Speaker 6: to just start

Speaker 8: off right at the top because there were some breaking things

Speaker 9 (higher-pitched voice): just as we were filling out here

Speaker 10: today. I want to make sure that

Speaker 9 (higher-pitched voice): we update everybody out there. The trial for former President Trump just completed, and the jury just over their verdict. So for

Speaker 11: those of you who have not been informed yet, he has been found guilty on all

Speaker 12: 34

counts

Woman 14: Oh

my God, yes, I believe it's easy

Woman 14: I think it does say something that has happened in New York

Speaker 15: where he was born, where

Woman 14: he's from, where he has operated. A lot

Speaker 15: of people who worked in

Speaker 16: construction, who have been born, you know, grew up here in the city knew

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): that he had been involved in these kinds of practices for a very long time. And there was just kind of a lot of folks

Speaker 18 (higher-pitched voice): everyday people, that have been fleeced and swindled and, you know, I think

Speaker 19 (higher-pitched voice): overall this is about

Speaker 20 (higher-pitched voice): our

Speaker 21: justice system. It's important

Speaker 22 (higher-pitched voice): to know that despite

the

Speaker 22 (higher-pitched voice): initial statements trying to politicize this verdict, saying that it was somehow

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): partisan or Democrats or what have you, Donald Trump was convicted by a jury of

Speaker 20 (higher-pitched voice): his

Speaker 22 (higher-pitched voice): peers. His

Speaker 20 (higher-pitched voice): peers that

Speaker 18 (higher-pitched voice): were people

Speaker 20 (higher-pitched voice): here in New York, his defense attorneys

Speaker 18 (higher-pitched voice): at both sides

had the who the

Speaker 23: people who serve on that jury are for partisanship

So

Speaker 20 (higher-pitched voice): these jurors were folks that even his own team and his own legal team helped be a part of that kind of initial screening process. This is our justice system. It is a justice system that, for the most part, does not even administer

Speaker 18 (higher-pitched voice): justice equally to all New Yorkers

In

Speaker 18 (higher-pitched voice): fact, usually it is the poorest

and the

Speaker 25 (higher-pitched voice): people with least resources and the most marginalized and often black and brown viewers that experience complete, that experience

Speaker 20 (higher-pitched voice): the actual miscarriages of justice, not just in New York, but across the country. And I think what was important today is trying to

Speaker 26: at least strive

Speaker 27: for a world where the rule of law applies to everyone. Everybody

And in

Speaker 26: fact, it is the wealthiest and the

Speaker 28: whitest and the most powerful

Woman 29: people that do not

Speaker 28: experience an

Speaker 19 (higher-pitched voice): actual accountability or a

Speaker 25 (higher-pitched voice): legal level of accountability in our justice system. And so he has the right to pursue whatever

Speaker 16: his legal avenues are, but at

Speaker 18 (higher-pitched voice): the end of the day, this was actually not a political process and not a partisan one. It is one of our legal and justice systems that in

Speaker 19 (higher-pitched voice): fact he attempted to try to influence through political

Speaker 30: intimidation, through bullying these judges, and also I think

Speaker 19 (higher-pitched voice): active intimidation of those jurors. So I commend everyone who participated, from the jurors, to the

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): judge, and everybody for trying to stink off the intimidation of that process, and that's what we have today

So

Speaker 31: there we are on

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): that. Thank you

Now, of course, we did not time this

Woman 14: town call to heaven, like, just 30 minutes after the event

Woman 32: came out

Speaker 25 (higher-pitched voice): So we have a lot to catch up on, actually, and some of the work that we've been doing in Washington. But I'd be happy to take some of your questions afterwards. But there's been a lot

Speaker 33: of updates

Woman 29: and a lot of things

in

Woman 29: terms of our work that has been

Speaker 34: going on in Washington, D.C

Woman 29: that we do think is important to update each and every one of you want. So we're going to start

Woman 32: with our agenda. We're going to update you all with some of the community project funding that I've been pursuing here to get as well as $500 here to the Bronx and for Queens. Another

Speaker 36 (higher-pitched voice): update is the deal for public housing that we've been pursuing, American Climate Corp, the Finance Act which has to

Speaker 18 (higher-pitched voice): do with the use of AI and sexually exploited implementation. and how we're trying to combat that. IRS

Woman 29: Correct Bible, which is something I want to update you all on. Some of the latest updates on Palestine and Israel, and our latest in trying to achieve this

Speaker 19 (higher-pitched voice): fire and guns up. Student loan forgiveness, and there's some libraries here, but we'll get to that as well

Um

Speaker 19 (higher-pitched voice): so let's just go straight into

Woman 32: it. Um, Community Project Company, we have secured over 12

Speaker 38: million dollars for some of our community projects

Woman 32: here over well

Speaker 27: between the Bronx and

Speaker 39 (higher-pitched voice): in Queens, and I want to update you all on some of the things we can expect. Um, we just funded a violence prevention community center, um, in Astoria

Speaker 40: America. which focuses

Speaker 39 (higher-pitched voice): overwhelmingly on women's

Speaker 40: self-defense

Speaker 41 (higher-pitched voice): I'm very excited to be financing

Woman 32: that. We also have to help secure families to start opening a youth center in Co-Op City

Speaker 19 (higher-pitched voice): so that after school and during the summertime, our young people will have places to start

Speaker 18 (higher-pitched voice): gather that that also gets you know paired with programming and active investments in our community

Speaker 39 (higher-pitched voice): um and i'm really excited for this one to say this is actually the project that's featured here we've secured a million dollar grant

um

Woman 32: for warehousing for fresh produce but i want to be

clear

Speaker 19 (higher-pitched voice): this kind of produce is. We helped

Speaker 43: fund a new

Speaker 19 (higher-pitched voice): build for

Speaker 39 (higher-pitched voice): a warehouse at Hunts Point and what this warehouse does is that it's not just to have as many produce

Woman 32: we want local farms and we want some of that great organic produce

Speaker 44: to be here in

Woman 32: the

Woman 29: Bronx to help combat a lot of our food desert issues and to show that what we really want is not just any nutrition, we want good nutrition. here

Speaker 18 (higher-pitched voice): in the Bronx. And we

Speaker 47: want that food to not come from

Speaker 18 (higher-pitched voice): thousands and thousands of miles away where it takes

Speaker 39 (higher-pitched voice): all that time to come here. It's sprayed with tons of pesticides from huge corporate growers

Speaker 19 (higher-pitched voice): We want more produce here that is produced by New York area farmers

Woman 29: sustainable agriculture but the problem is that a lot of those small farmers have some economic barriers in accessing our

Speaker 48 (higher-pitched voice): community and one of those things

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): can be storing their

Speaker 25 (higher-pitched voice): produce because they have to

Speaker 49: bring it in on

Speaker 25 (higher-pitched voice): trucks every single time they want to come down to the green market and so we have worked with Grow NYC to help build our

Speaker 41 (higher-pitched voice): storage warehouse right right here in the Bronx in Huntsville so that our local producers

can

Speaker 41 (higher-pitched voice): we

Speaker 50 (higher-pitched voice): can store some of their produce and then we can start supporting more green markets in areas like Hunt's

Speaker 19 (higher-pitched voice): Fleet, in Parkchester, and other areas. So a lot of higher food we recommend

checking

Speaker 51: out the GrowNYC

Speaker 41 (higher-pitched voice): website, checking out when we've got those green markets here in the Bronx. And a lot of times they're not too far from the subway

Speaker 25 (higher-pitched voice): station, so you can pick up some good produce on the way home. support that economy or local cost for it, you can use EBT at green markets now

Woman 29: And so you can use EBT and other services

Speaker 52: to help purchase really healthy produce for yourself

The

Speaker 47: next thing that we have is improvements to street safety. We got a couple of multi-million dollar rents

Speaker 50 (higher-pitched voice): One at Worcester Square. If anyone has ever taken the bus or the subway by Worcester Square, you'll see it's pretty dangerous, like if you ride down the bus, there's all these cars at

Speaker 54 (higher-pitched voice): intersections and it can be really, really dangerous to try to get there. to your

Speaker 23: bus home to transfer and so we've secured a couple million dollars in Westchester Square to start making it more pedestrian safe so we're really

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): excited about that and then the last thing that we're doing is that we secured large amounts of funds to get enhancements

Speaker 46 (higher-pitched voice): to our public libraries and public housing facilities right here in the Bronx

so we're really excited about that

Woman 29: Next up, we reintroduced the Green New Deal for public housing

Speaker 25 (higher-pitched voice): which is one of our in trying to secure

Speaker 48 (higher-pitched voice): investments in NYSHA on the federal level, and we'll continue to fight for it

Woman 29: We reintroduced the Green New Deal for public housing, and this includes retrofits and rehabilitating a

lot

Speaker 19 (higher-pitched voice): of our buildings here. It's a proposal to invest about $23 billion a year

Speaker 25 (higher-pitched voice): over 10 years. and really importantly is to create over 280,000 jobs. What we want to do is not just patch up the holes that we see in public housing, but really retrofit and revamp our public housing facilities so

Speaker 19 (higher-pitched voice): that they don't, so that we solve the environmental justice and to do basic housing dignity issues at their core in the first place. We shouldn't have to deal with no hot bar and no sleep in the wintertime, We should have to deal with power outages so that people

Speaker 56: can't

Speaker 25 (higher-pitched voice): cool their homes in the summertime either. And so these really get to the core, and instead of patching up problems, we want to

Speaker 58: strengthen those investments to really overhaul our systems

Speaker 59: in the first place. Next

Speaker 60 (higher-pitched voice): up

one of the

Speaker 59: big victories

Speaker 46 (higher-pitched voice): that we got is that we officially launched the American Climate Corps with President Biden just last month

Speaker 61: Um, so

Speaker 46 (higher-pitched voice): we're really incredibly excited about that. What the American Climate Board

Speaker 62: does, this is part of our initial

Speaker 63: proposal when I first introduced the Green Big Deal in 2019

Speaker 64: It is a overall force, kind of like

Speaker 25 (higher-pitched voice): Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, etc. that will hire tens of thousands of young people To help do climate mitigation and environmental justice work across the United States. And so we launched with the president 2,000 new open positions everywhere from

Speaker 65: here in the Bronx to rural

Speaker 25 (higher-pitched voice): areas

Speaker 36 (higher-pitched voice): throughout the country and What this does is that it allows us to pay young people typically those

Speaker 25 (higher-pitched voice): who are just graduating college or grad school, in order to invest and in order to do some of these working communities. A really great example of Climate Core-style jobs is that there actually already is a Climate Core-style program in NYCHA and in public

Speaker 18 (higher-pitched voice): facilities. which helps the community learn how to compost, then composts

Speaker 67: all of our local

Speaker 18 (higher-pitched voice): food scraps, and then

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): turns it into soil, rich compost, rich soil, and brings it back to our communities so that people can start re-growing their own

food

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): Um, but ColliderCore-style programs, they exist and are rolling out across the country and it's everything from Nancroove

Speaker 25 (higher-pitched voice): restoration in Puerto Rico to, uh, to installing solar panels in community centers

Speaker 69: in rural areas

of Pennsylvania. And

Speaker 25 (higher-pitched voice): so we've

Speaker 60 (higher-pitched voice): launched, we've got two kinds of decisions. We wrote to 20,000 positions nationwide. So if you

Speaker 18 (higher-pitched voice): know a young person that is interested in climate work, I definitely recommend going

Woman 32: to, I think it's climatecorps.gov. If you Google American Climate Corps, the.gov, it does what it comes up

Speaker 39 (higher-pitched voice): is where you can check out all of the postings and listings

Speaker 54 (higher-pitched voice): And we've already started to go through our first class, which

Speaker 70: is really, very, very exciting

Speaker 19 (higher-pitched voice): And it's a fantastic opportunity, These are

technical

Speaker 19 (higher-pitched voice): rather than sharing about the young

Speaker 39 (higher-pitched voice): person in

your life

Speaker 72 (higher-pitched voice): Next, one of the areas of proposals that I've been working on and we've been developing a lot of momentum on is something known as the Defiance Act

Speaker 73 (higher-pitched voice): Now, what this addresses is, unfortunately, there's a lot of

Speaker 72 (higher-pitched voice): AI-generated and exploitative images that are coming up

Speaker 10: Has anyone here, who cares to learn about AI

The

Speaker 10: fact that AI can't develop images. Thank you

Woman 14: So most of us here have been familiar with AI since AI

Speaker 39 (higher-pitched voice): launched a couple of years ago. What we found and discovered was that over 90% of all the images and

Speaker 74: video developed by

Speaker 39 (higher-pitched voice): AI were sexually exploitative against people without their consent. And so this is something that I found to be very alarming. And so we've partnered up

Woman 32: with Senator Durbin in the Senate, as well as partnering across the

Woman 29: aisle with Republicans and with Republicans, both in the House and the Senate, to try to help do something about this. So what we came up with is something known as the Defiance Act. What we've found is that despite the fact that there's all of these images and video that anyone

Speaker 39 (higher-pitched voice): can basically produce content about you, without your consent, that it's sexually exploitative. There's actually zero federal protections if something like that

Speaker 22 (higher-pitched voice): happens to you, or if something like that happens to

you. So

Speaker 22 (higher-pitched voice): we started to work on legislation that establishes federal civil rights

Speaker 60 (higher-pitched voice): action for victims, the first of its kind, related to AI

Speaker 39 (higher-pitched voice): And what this will allow you to do is if you are a victim of this

Speaker 19 (higher-pitched voice): form of sexual exploitation, and someone uses AI to generate an expletive image of you and shares it on platforms, that you will not have the right to go after that person in court and then have a legal protection

Speaker 25 (higher-pitched voice): where hopefully these images can be taken down and prevented from being generated in the first place. So we're gaining a lot of momentum on this legislation. It is

Speaker 39 (higher-pitched voice): starting to pick up and

Speaker 77: gain passage

Speaker 39 (higher-pitched voice): The passage has

Speaker 60 (higher-pitched voice): started to clear in the Senate

Speaker 50 (higher-pitched voice): and so we're very much hoping that this can get

Speaker 60 (higher-pitched voice): through

Speaker 78: this year. So we're very close and happy, hoping to get some results there. Next, sorry that I'm

kind of

Speaker 78: blitzing through a lot of things, but there's

Speaker 79: a lot of stuff that we've picked up on, and a lot of stuff we've been able to accomplish in the last couple

of months

Speaker 79: here with IRS Direct

Woman 14: file, who here has TurboTax online? And raise your hand if you use TurboTax or we should not block. Okay

who has

Speaker 81: paid money to

Speaker 54 (higher-pitched voice): these folks in order

Speaker 82: just to file their

Speaker 60 (higher-pitched voice): taxes? So it's like how it makes any sense, right

Speaker 82: You're doing all of it

Speaker 60 (higher-pitched voice): right? You're filling out every

Speaker 83: single

box

Speaker 83: you are doing and submitting all of your information

Speaker 60 (higher-pitched voice): and then you have to pay TurboTax or H&M Law a bunch

Speaker 83: of money sometimes just for them to take everything you just sent and send them over to the IRS. So we've been working with the IRS for a couple of years now in order

Speaker 13: to just cut out that loan and have the IRS just like do it themselves, right as your

IRS

Speaker 39 (higher-pitched voice): And for a really long time, corporate lobbyists

Speaker 25 (higher-pitched voice): prevented us from passing legislation from doing that because these big companies make a lot of money from taking part of your

you know, tax refund check

Speaker 60 (higher-pitched voice): pocketing

Speaker 84: part of it

Speaker 60 (higher-pitched voice): and passing it along. And so they would pay a lot of lobbyists and folks

Speaker 39 (higher-pitched voice): to essentially create political pressure to prevent us from doing away with that and just letting you file directly and hire us yourselves. Except that was until this spring. We brought in the Deputy Treasury Secretary

Speaker 25 (higher-pitched voice): of the IRS. That's the stone here, Deputy Secretary Wally Adriano. And we brought him to the Bronx, and we did kind of like a smaller town hall-style gathering. And we're really excited to

Speaker 13: announce that

Speaker 25 (higher-pitched voice): they launched IRS direct file. They did a test pilot program for just a handful of states, that included New York this year

Speaker 85: And they launched this pilot saying, "Hey, depending on how it goes, maybe we can establish this program nationwide

Speaker 39 (higher-pitched voice): Well, the IRS direct file, the New Yorker trial that included about a dozen other states, the New York trial went so successfully

In

Speaker 36 (higher-pitched voice): fact, now, IR's direct route that was announced

Speaker 50 (higher-pitched voice): today, it does look like they're going to be expanding

Speaker 19 (higher-pitched voice): to the entire country now. So we're really excited about that. You'll be able to file your taxes online for free, no one taking

Speaker 72 (higher-pitched voice): any of your money

now

Speaker 19 (higher-pitched voice): and you also get

Speaker 72 (higher-pitched voice): your refunds sometimes faster too. So that's really

great. Thank you very much

So next up, one

Speaker 87: of the things that we always want to make sure that we speak to

Speaker 88: is, of course, the unfolding horrific atrocities that are happening in Gaza and in Palestine

Speaker 89: Now, a lot of times it's very

Speaker 48 (higher-pitched voice): important, I want to make sure that we're clear with you all about what happens to see that your congressional district is engaged in, in Washington, D.C. from day one of this entire conflict, we have called for a ceasefire in Gaza, as well as, of course, condemning the attacks that happened on October 7th as well. However, I have

Speaker 25 (higher-pitched voice): been a co-sponsor of the ceasefire resolution since day one, since its initial introduction. I also led about

Speaker 19 (higher-pitched voice): 24 other members of Congress and Cohen, in calling for the administration to negotiate a black house to inspire students to the rights

Speaker 25 (higher-pitched voice): of children in Gotham as well, they denounced the looming famine and the unfolding

Speaker 48 (higher-pitched voice): genocide that is

Speaker 25 (higher-pitched voice): occurring

Speaker 19 (higher-pitched voice): on the floor

Speaker 48 (higher-pitched voice): of the

Speaker 19 (higher-pitched voice): house. I think what's very important here is that there's two elements: there is first, there

The

Speaker 19 (higher-pitched voice): asymmetrical bombardment and the absolute violence that we are seeing

Speaker 93: with

Speaker 48 (higher-pitched voice): U.S. weapons that are being dropped in Gaza, that is one of the major issues that we see unfolding. And then secondly, it is the famine that we are seeing also being

a danger. a

Speaker 48 (higher-pitched voice): generated famine

Speaker 54 (higher-pitched voice): that is occurring

Speaker 48 (higher-pitched voice): And so we're not willing to really see

Speaker 54 (higher-pitched voice): the violence of these munitions that are being dropped. And a lot of times, indiscriminately

Speaker 48 (higher-pitched voice): we just

Speaker 54 (higher-pitched voice): saw this

Speaker 48 (higher-pitched voice): bombing of this location where the refugees

Speaker 94: were told it

Speaker 48 (higher-pitched voice): was a safe place, and then it was later

Speaker 54 (higher-pitched voice): bombed. We're not just seeing that, we're also seeing that all of

Speaker 19 (higher-pitched voice): the humanitarian aid that is being authorized, sent from all over the world, - Thank

you

Speaker 19 (higher-pitched voice): States is being blocked as well, and that is creating a

Speaker 95 (higher-pitched voice): complete and utter indiscriminate standard through which that is not targeting any

Speaker 54 (higher-pitched voice): feedback, that is not

Speaker 96: targeting any clinic-specific

Speaker 54 (higher-pitched voice): that is starting to target a population. It's something that we need to speak up against, to speak out

Woman 32: against

So next

Speaker 39 (higher-pitched voice): up, we've got stupid death relief

We

Speaker 39 (higher-pitched voice): have seven rounds that were just announced by President Biden and a very

Speaker 22 (higher-pitched voice): recent one just this week, just last week, President Biden announced another round of student debt relief. This one includes 116,000 additional borrowers and that puts our

Speaker 48 (higher-pitched voice): total number at 4.75 million Americans that we've been able to secure

Speaker 99: student loan relief for

In

Speaker 19 (higher-pitched voice): average, if you are within the category of individuals or if you qualify for student debt relief, the average relief amount is $35,000 that's been canceled per borrower, which by the

Speaker 48 (higher-pitched voice): way is higher than what we were even able to try to pressure

Speaker 100: President Biden to, which was initially

Speaker 48 (higher-pitched voice): a range of $10,000 to $20,000

This

Speaker 101: also includes public service

Speaker 73 (higher-pitched voice): workers and those in the SAFE

Woman 32: plan as well and so I would really recommend that if you have

Speaker 25 (higher-pitched voice): student

loans and

Speaker 20 (higher-pitched voice): you have it checked out, if you qualify

Speaker 25 (higher-pitched voice): for student debt relief

Speaker 95 (higher-pitched voice): I would really recommend

Speaker 20 (higher-pitched voice): looking at

Speaker 95 (higher-pitched voice): some of this information up and see if you qualify

Speaker 102: because this is a life changing amount of money for a lot of people, for most

Speaker 78: of us, all of us really. This

Speaker 103: also builds

Speaker 78: on three years of student development

Speaker 54 (higher-pitched voice): efforts that we've been pursuing and we're not done yet. So that's something that we want to continue pushing forward as well

Speaker 104: Next

we

Speaker 54 (higher-pitched voice): have

Speaker 104: our Q&A, so if I were able to get through all of that, maybe we can kind of spend some time in questions. So thank you all so, so much

for coming today

Okay, time for Q&A. Our first question is from Brian Torres. What is the status of the ACP Affordable

Speaker 106: Connectivity Program expansion

Okay, so

Speaker 107: this is a really important question. Is she still

Speaker 108: here? Okay, thank you for asking this question. It's so incredibly important. The

Speaker 95 (higher-pitched voice): affordable connectivity program for people who are not familiar, it was a major subsidy that we were able

Speaker 109: to secure for broadband

Speaker 95 (higher-pitched voice): and for internet for a

Speaker 109: lot of mid

Speaker 95 (higher-pitched voice): to low income families. And we secured it during

Speaker 22 (higher-pitched voice): COVID, but what occurred, I believe it's more important just during COVID, but what happened is that it has an expiration date, the subsidy has an expiration date, and the House of Representatives currently has a Republican majority, and that majority has not approved of

Speaker 19 (higher-pitched voice): funding the extension of the Affordable Connectivity Program, which means that their prices could go up. um if they don't uh if they

Speaker 54 (higher-pitched voice): don't if their movements don't approve um that extension

so

Woman 14: the good news now is that since this program affects all different

Speaker 19 (higher-pitched voice): kinds of americans rural urban um you know all all different geographies and places across the country

Speaker 48 (higher-pitched voice): a lot of people are really concerned about this and they're

Speaker 110: speaking up including people in with

Speaker 19 (higher-pitched voice): a lot of public

representatives

Speaker 19 (higher-pitched voice): So, I do think that there's a lot of political pressure that's being built up. Just so you know, I'm

Speaker 95 (higher-pitched voice): very, very supportive of extending the ACP. I think it's critically important, and I speak up with that very often

Speaker 22 (higher-pitched voice): And I actually have a conversation that's happening in a lot of places too. So, we're hoping that we can kind of introduce some sort of extension to this soon, but we do have that political

Speaker 73 (higher-pitched voice): challenge

right now

Speaker 73 (higher-pitched voice): So that's the

current status. Why are we

Speaker 112: allowing people to enter our country illegally? How is this good for America

Who

Speaker 113: keeps

Speaker 114: you in the middle? Oh, yeah

Woman 32: Well, okay. I think first and foremost, what constitutes of legal and illegal

Speaker 115: Who has that? Who has

Woman 32: that

Who has

Speaker 115: that? Who has that? Who

Speaker 116: wrote

that Then

Speaker 117 (higher-pitched voice): I'll pretend I do

Pardon me

Speaker 117 (higher-pitched voice): If I

do

Speaker 118: Pardon me? I'll

pretend I

Speaker 117 (higher-pitched voice): do. I'll pretend I do. I'll pretend I

Speaker 118: do. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry

Speaker 119: Okay? Go

ahead. Okay. All

Speaker 6: right

Woman 32: So I think, first of all, what constitutes is legal and illegal

Speaker 18 (higher-pitched voice): A lot of times people don't realize that seeking asylum is legal in the

Speaker 122: United States. If you're not legal, you have to seek asylum or you're possible to require the

punishment

Woman 32: So seeking asylum is legal

Speaker 18 (higher-pitched voice): it is a legal activity. In order to seek asylum, you have to present yourself at the border in order to seek asylum. There are

Speaker 19 (higher-pitched voice): ways and methods that you can seek prior to arrival, but you are not required in

Speaker 18 (higher-pitched voice): general, historically as policy. has not

Speaker 123: been limited just to

Speaker 18 (higher-pitched voice): that. Now, there are changes, there are things like Title 42, etc. But I just want to clarify that a lot of those things that seeking aside have been

Speaker 48 (higher-pitched voice): under the impression that

Speaker 25 (higher-pitched voice): seeking aside is illegal, it is not illegal. Now, when it comes

Speaker 20 (higher-pitched voice): to what is happening in order, the main issue that we have and what creates people

Speaker 124: and situations of, quote, "illegality" is because our system makes it nearly

Speaker 125: impossible for people to legally apply for citizenship in the first place. And so if we actually want to solve this issue, because I would

Speaker 126: tell

you, I have stepped in

Woman 32: Congress for six years now. Every single time this comes up, the solution that continues coming up is dumping more money into the border, dumping more money into enforcement

Speaker 25 (higher-pitched voice): However you feel about it, that is what has happened, right? More and more billions of dollars, but it doesn't solve the underlying issue because the underlying issue, is that we need to actually expand the Pax

Speaker 60 (higher-pitched voice): citizenship in the United States. We need to make it accessible to be here equally

Woman 29: If people think there's

Speaker 60 (higher-pitched voice): a line, maybe we should make

a line

Speaker 60 (higher-pitched voice): And

Speaker 127: that's to make someone in Congress to fight someone in the war to change the system. And

Woman 14: I'm very happy, and I'm very happy to support legislation that allows expansion of the Pax citizenship

T

Speaker 128: Thank you. - Excuse

Speaker 130: me

Speaker 117 (higher-pitched voice): Q&A

Who breaks up the

Speaker 117 (higher-pitched voice): immigration laws in our country? - Congress. - That's you, right? - Yes

T

Speaker 131: The asylum process

is

Speaker 117 (higher-pitched voice): being gamed in our Soviet Union. People are showing up, dumping your ID, and saying, "I'm here for a second." That's not how it's supposed to work. They're supposed to verify who they are at the

border. And

Speaker 132 (higher-pitched voice): according to the U.S., the assignment process is supposed to be the next continuous country that shares a border with the person seeking political asylum. They are not supposed to come from all over the world

to the

Speaker 132 (higher-pitched voice): U.S. for political asylum. That is illegal. And you don't

Speaker 133: Okay. Okay. You know that. Secondly, excuse me. First of all, we have a line of questions, so

Speaker 134: we're going to have these questions first. I'm happy to come back to that. But Seeking Asylum at the U.S. border

Speaker 135: is legal

Thank you. Seeking

Speaker 135: Asylum

Speaker 136: at the U.S

border is legal

Speaker 136: Sir, please. Thank you very much. The next question is on the fall pillager

Speaker 137: How do we take care of the migrant farm in our district

I think we

Speaker 18 (higher-pitched voice): should take care of that the way that we do with our standard processes. When any crime is committed in our district, it's important to note that, once again, the average crime rate, if we're going to compare crime rates in populations

Speaker 19 (higher-pitched voice): crime rates among crime rate populations are far lower than it is among U.S. citizens. And so, to me, when a crime is committed in our district and in our community, We process that the same

Speaker 48 (higher-pitched voice): way that we would process it in our typical systems. But to single out one community that historically has a far

Speaker 88: lower crime rate

than any

Speaker 48 (higher-pitched voice): others, I think is something that is dangerous and we should try to give up the temperature in a way that is

Speaker 140: unsubstantiated and unhelpful

This one has

Speaker 4: another name, but it is from Queens

What

Speaker 4: can you do to improve public transit in the

Speaker 141: outer borough? To get to the Bronx, you have to pass to Manhattan and it takes a while

Okay, someone who

Speaker 87: represents both the Bronx and Queens

is also

Speaker 122: very important to

Speaker 142: me because it does take

Speaker 143: forever to get from one borough

Speaker 18 (higher-pitched voice): to another you have to pass to Manhattan to get anywhere. We've been supportive of in general projects that

Speaker 22 (higher-pitched voice): connect outer boroughs to Franklin. there is a tree a

Speaker 144: train line proposal to

Speaker 22 (higher-pitched voice): provide some of the older train lines that used to exist that connected Brooklyn and Queens and we have been advocating to add that, to extend that line to the

Speaker 19 (higher-pitched voice): Bronx, so that there's a train line that can be established that connects both the Bronx to Queens and then from Queens to Brooklyn, because as you all know, anyone who's trying to commute

Speaker 145: between

any of these boroughs

Speaker 145: hours, hours and

Speaker 146: hours. So

Speaker 40: in terms of that, first and foremost, I support federal infrastructure

Speaker 147: investment

Speaker 22 (higher-pitched voice): into public transit and during the times that we were working and negotiating around both Build Back Better Rescue

Speaker 48 (higher-pitched voice): Plan

and other investments, we

Speaker 48 (higher-pitched voice): i have certainly advocated for a one-to-one dollar investment every dollar that we put in road and car infrastructure we should be creating to rail and public transit infrastructure i think it's a very big

and very

Speaker 48 (higher-pitched voice): eminently reasonable request for us to have

Speaker 18 (higher-pitched voice): to have that kind of investment because without that that investment that we have we won't be able to you know we have to make

Speaker 25 (higher-pitched voice): public transit just as efficient ideally more efficient and faster than car infrastructure Thank you. take cars when the trains

Speaker 48 (higher-pitched voice): get backed up or there's no rail or there's no access to the train

Speaker 150: And so by making the trains more widespread, faster, more efficient, then we'll be able to

Speaker 22 (higher-pitched voice): you know, just make

it a

Speaker 22 (higher-pitched voice): more, a more incentivized thing for us to take. So getting those dollars to our community has been

a top

Speaker 22 (higher-pitched voice): priority of mine. And I'm

Speaker 100: glad, I'm happy to be able to secure a lot of those federal grants and federal grants in general to our

Thank

Speaker 4: you. That's all the time we have other questions. If you'd like to contact our office, please reach out at

Speaker 113: 788-662-500-70. We've

Speaker 151: got to be kidding me. I want to have some questions. We still have, we still have some

Speaker 152: questions. Yeah, so, I'm just wondering, how do you think we're offended, and we don't need this, so like, how do you think you got in 20 years? I'm just wondering, do you? Yeah, okay, okay. Can you think we have a

Speaker 153: statement

Um

Speaker 152: so why don't you debate your competitor, Martin Dolan? Pardon? Why won't you debate your competitor, your Democratic competitor, Martin Dolan

Speaker 155: Uh-oh

You

Speaker 156: said it was an insult and probably wouldn't debate back in 2018, why won't you debate your competitor

Um

Speaker 157: he doesn't

Speaker 87: live here. It's not superior

He lives in

Speaker 158: this district. He is running for Congress in Queens and in this district. He lives in this district. How else do you run for Congress if you don't? He's on the

Woman 29: ballot. I'm happy to debate someone from this community. How do you run for Congress if you don't live in a district

Speaker 162: How do you run for Congress if you don't live in a district

I wonder

Speaker 162: Okay, then I'll give you five of the progress. - All right. - All right. - I

want to

Speaker 165: say that's the board consultation. - Yeah. - I want to say thank you for the board union. Since the first day you were talking

here, you were

Speaker 165: getting out of it in

Speaker 166: the first section. I heard all the parties that were acting on the university. They were all talked about perfectly. The one thing I asked myself about labor, I came out and I was going over here on some of the projects, living through the job to change

my life. Over

Speaker 167: 24, currently

Speaker 166: I'm a 14th executive board member I'm a vice president of the local, and I speak about your back. And I see what you're doing, I see what you're doing, I see what you're doing

for you

Speaker 166: Ignite you, and you have to do it a little bit later to help you out, to help

our people

Speaker 166: which is the best way to help the ones that have left to help themselves. Thank you

Speaker 168: so much. Thank you

Thank you. Thank

Speaker 169: you. Thank you. The question I think is, first

Speaker 40: and foremost, I am a huge supporter of the PRO Act. In Congress, the PRO Act will

Speaker 22 (higher-pitched voice): make it easier for unions to fight back against these big corporations that have been trying to dismantle and roll back labor rights, and our ability to ordinance and our ability to unionize

Speaker 23: So I'm a huge, huge supporter of the PRO Act, Of course, and when it comes to the Green New Deal, labor rights and union rights have been in the center of that. Because we

Speaker 22 (higher-pitched voice): have to make sure that the transition to green energy to efficiency doesn't mean a degradation of our jobs, it should actually mean an elevation and improvement of our work. And

Speaker 171: so we're really, really excited about that. Of course, I'm always happy to work with the Teamsters

Speaker 172: and it's been speaking to such phenomenal partners here in the Bronx as well as a ton of other things I start meeting the moms

Speaker 173: with people being

mad at

Speaker 173: me, because you're here at the CFC, thank you so much, I appreciate it. Alright, we have our next question

back here

Speaker 174: Hello, guys. It's great to see you again. My name is Mitch, I'm the board of a two

mental health facilities. I'm also an

Speaker 174: advocate for a man, which I'm sure you're aware of. Now, we all know that in this city, and indeed across the country, there's a mental health crisis. And suicide rates are climbing, and people are actually dying. Now, I only know what have we done on the federal

level. Thank

Speaker 174: you. This is a really

Speaker 22 (higher-pitched voice): important subject. One of the things that I think is important to say, first and foremost, is that mental health and mental health care

Speaker 19 (higher-pitched voice): is health care. And so one of the ways that I think we really need to address this issue is by expanding our health care

Speaker 54 (higher-pitched voice): system and actually guaranteeing health care to every American, regardless of their ability or their income. And

Speaker 95 (higher-pitched voice): we can do that. Almost every

Speaker 22 (higher-pitched voice): country in the world guarantees health care, and I think expanding our mental health care system is tremendously important. I also think, and this is something that is important to state, as the fact that Rutgers is in our congressional district and part of our community. Our health care system, our mental health care system, has been underfunded to the

Speaker 74: point that we use our criminal justice system

as a

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): health care

Speaker 74: replacement, and an

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): enormous amount of people that are in Rikers actually have mental health care needs and severe mental health care issues. And so we see that

Speaker 25 (higher-pitched voice): historically when our mental health care infrastructure started to get gutted and

Speaker 177: eroded, the populations of our children's prisons also started to explode as well. And so one of the

Speaker 22 (higher-pitched voice): things that we really need to do is expand and invest in our mental health care system. We need to focus a lot on some of the communities that are being affected heavily

We

Speaker 48 (higher-pitched voice): actually hope the medical center, and it has been one of the things, especially since COVID. We have seen admissions of children as

Speaker 54 (higher-pitched voice): young as 12 years old, 11 years old, into the ER for mental health care issues

There

Speaker 54 (higher-pitched voice): is a huge crisis going on. It's a crisis of isolation as well

Speaker 134: that has skyrocketed since COVID. So

Speaker 22 (higher-pitched voice): a lot of our mental health care needs are also, A, our health care system needs. That's one big reason why I support Medicare for All

But

Speaker 179: it's also community

Speaker 22 (higher-pitched voice): needs. And our ability, all of this is very connected

Speaker 180: When people are able to afford

Speaker 73 (higher-pitched voice): their everyday

and live

Speaker 73 (higher-pitched voice): and have affordable, livable, everyday

Speaker 19 (higher-pitched voice): wage without having better jobs. That's a mental health care issue

Speaker 181: We have access

to health care

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you