The New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC), an umbrella organization representing more than 200 immigrant rights groups across the city, will host a Key to the City event in Jackson Heights this Saturday, aiming to connect the Jackson Heights community with organizations offering essential services and information.
The event will take place between noon and 4 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 4, at Jackson Heights’ 34th Ave Open Street at 93-11 34th Ave.
The community resource fair will connect local residents with nonprofits specializing in education, healthcare and immigration law. Attendees will also receive access to free food and essential supplies as well as free books and clothes.
The event, which is co-sponsored by Council Member Shekar Krishnan and Council Speaker Adrienne Adams alongside several community groups and city agencies, will also feature live music and dancing in a celebration of local culture.
Caterina Cundari, who manages Key to the City events at NYIC, said the community resource fair is more necessary than ever as the Trump Administration pursues a rigid immigration strategy against immigrant communities across the city.
Cundari said immigrant communities are not accessing essential services like they used to out of fear of being persecuted or apprehended by federal authorities, highlighting the importance of Saturday’s event.
Krishnan, meanwhile, said events such as Saturday’s Key to the City have taken a much greater importance in the wake of the “horrific actions” that federal immigration authorities such as US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are carrying out in immigrant communities across the country.
“I think now more than ever, programs like Key to the City, are so important, and that’s why I’m very proud to host it,” Krishnan said.
Krishnan said there has been “palpable” fear in his Council District ever since Trump took office in January, preventing members of the community from seeking essential services such as healthcare and education programs.
“That’s the terrifying reality of what the Trump administration is doing,” Krishnan said. “They are instilling fear in people to seek services they need… on a daily basis.”
Cundari said NYIC has seen a downturn in attendance numbers at Key to the City events ever since Trump took office because immigrant members of the community are afraid of potentially exposing themselves to ICE or other federal agencies.
However, she said NYIC has taken a number of steps to ensure the safety of attendees at Saturday’s event as well as all Key to the City events, including hosting events in safe spaces within the community. Cundari said NYIC has also altered free legal clinics that were previously tied to the community resource fair. NYIC also continues to partner with community leaders and elected officials to ensure the safety of all attendees, Cundari said.
Before Trump took office, NYIC encouraged members of the community to sit down with immigration attorneys on a walk-in basis but has now separated that process from the resource fair entirely. Appointments are now only available by appointment only with a thorough screen process to ensure that attendees “are there for the right reasons,” Cundari said.
Krishnan, on the other hand, said it is natural for the immigrant community to feel fear about attending the event but said it is “more important than ever” that community members know what services are available to them.
“I think it is a tragic reality that there are those who may not want to engage in services because they’re afraid, and that’s because of the the horrific action of the administration,” Krishnan said. “But our immigrant communities deserve the very same services and government resources as any other community across the country.”
Cundari said services such as Know Your Rights, which will be available on Saturday, are among the most important resources available to immigrant members of the community.
“We like to say education, right now, is our biggest defense against this fear,” Cundari said.
Cundari added that live music and dance is a relatively new component of Key to the City events, adding that NYIC is seeking to make the events more fun for attendees who can feel “overwhelmed” by the volume of information they receive.
“One of my main goals with the Key to the City program this year is to increase both joy and inclusivity as well as celebrating culture,” Cundari said. “I think sometimes these types of events can leave community members feeling a bit overwhelmed, leaving with a to-do list of things that they need to prepare and do.
“One of the questions that we ask ourselves is, how do we mitigate that? How do we also make this fun? So the dance, the music, the more creative programming has all been new.”
