Monthly Archives: July 2018

July 26, 2018. This article discusses the introduction of a new bill that would establish New York as a "sanctuary state." Under the measure, which has been introduced by State Sen. Jose Peralta (D-East Elmhurst) and Assistant Assembly Speaker Felix Ortiz (D-Brooklyn), state and local enforcement agencies would be prohibited from acting as agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, severely limiting the information they would be authorized to share with federal authorities. Additionally, the bill would restrict state and local agencies from cooperating with ICE to arrest [...]

July 18, 2018. With the wave of unprecedented public corruption scandals and criminal convictions in New York State government, it would make sense for a wave of accountability and ethics reform to follow. That is not the case. Governor Cuomo and legislators have failed to adopt any of the ethics reforms called for by government watchdog groups, including toughening oversight of state contracts, eliminating a loophole that allows companies to ignore campaign-contribution limits, and appointing an independent monitor for ethics and election laws. With the recent [...]

July 12, 2018. This articles discusses the outcome of the bid-rigging trial, reaction from the Governor and good government watchdog groups who have long pushed to end the corruption in Albany. The outcome of the trial saw the conviction of Alain Kaloyeros, former SUNY Polytechnic Institute President, and two other COR Development executives and a Buffalo building developers. While the Governor dismissed the trial's outcome, saying that fraud should not be tolerated, government watchdog groups, including the Fiscal Policy Institute, say that New York continues to [...]

June 5, 2018. In this op-ed by John Sprovieri, he tells the story of his four grandparents that came to the U.S. from Europe, who were poor and lacked education and skills. He goes on to highlight that nine of their 12 grandchildren have went to college, own their own homes, working to put their own kids through college and one is even a multimillionaire. He argues that his grandparents didn't come to the U.S. looking for handouts, rather to work whatever job they could [...]

July 2, 2018. FPI's Deputy Director and Director of the Immigration Research Initiative, David Dyssegaard Kallick, was interviewed on CBC News where he discussed the findings of FPI's and the Tent Partnership for Refugees' co-released report, "Refugees as Employees: Good Retention, Strong Recruitment." Kallick commented on the lower turnover rates for refugee employees, recruitment advantages for employers and better management skills for manager in firms that make an effort, sometimes minimal, to integrate refugees. CBC is a Canadian broadcast service. To watch the full interview, [...]