Immigrant Farm Workers Arrested In Second ICE Raid at Upstate Farm - Documented

During the early hours of August 14, U.S. Immigration Enforcement Agents (ICE) launched a raid on the Lynn-Ette & Sons Farms, a sprawling 8,000-acre farm in Orleans County, New York, that specializes in growing snap beans, cabbage, and squash. ICE agents detained four Mexican workers and three Guatemalan workers. The recent arrests at Lynn-Ette are the upstate farm’s second ICE raid in the past three months. This May, federal agents detained 14 workers in a similar raid. At about 6:30 a.m....

CDPAP Leadership Has Few Answers for Elected Officials - Documented

Amid ongoing claims of mismanagement and missed payments by CDPAP home care workers, state officials and the program’s new administrators continued to defend themselves and offered little new information about the New York State Medicaid program that allows eligible members to hire their loved ones as their caregivers.  On August 21, at a joint hearing of the Senate Committee on Health and the Senate Standing Committee on Investigations and Government Operations, lawmakers grilled representat...

LaGuardia Airport Employer Failed to File Injury Data With Feds - Documented

LaGuardia Airport ground crew workers employed by Alliance Ground International are demanding access to the company’s workplace safety logs in the face of increased safety issues. The union 32BJ SEIU, which is organizing the workers to increase labor standards, says AGI has failed to share with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) injury and illness records as required by law.  Sometimes known as the “Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses,” the OSHA 300 form includes...

In a Move to Protect Grocery Delivery Workers, NYC Council Plans to Override Mayor's Vetoes - Documented

On Thursday, the New York City Council announced its plan to override Mayor Eric Adams’ vetoes on multiple pieces of legislation that would deliver worker protection and minimum wages for grocery app delivery workers, many of whom are immigrants. The first law, Intro. 1133-A, sponsored by Council Member Jennifer Gutiérrez, would provide grocery delivery workers with new protections under the law, including access to bathrooms, distribution of fire safety materials, and insulated delivery bags...

Criticism Mounts Over CDPAP Overhaul as Immigrant Workers Go Unpaid

“Boondoggle” is the word some are using to describe the state’s controversial overhaul of the Consumer-Directed Personal Assistance Program, also known as CDPAP.   “I think it’s absolutely a boondoggle from many perspectives,” said Michael Kinnucan, senior health policy advisor at the Fiscal Policy Institute, who said the state’s CDPAP reform has been completely mismanaged. “The transition has been a real disaster for consumers and workers.” Established by the state in 1995, CDPAP gave fam...

Immigrant Workers Targeted as Trump Cuts DOL Workplace Rules

Immigrant workers on farms and construction sites are at greater risk of injury under President Donald Trump’s new push to deregulate workplaces, advocates say.  On July 1, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced its plan to deregulate 63 “costly and burdensome” workplace rules that were put in place during previous presidential administrations. The agency stated that the action was in line with Trump’s Executive Order “Unleashing Prosperity through Deregulation.”  Moving forward, for...

Mamdani’s Rise and the Resurgence of Islamophobic Politics - Documented

As Zohran Mamdani surges in the polls in his campaign for mayor of New York City, Islamophobia is also on the rise.  A recent report by the Center for the Study of Organized Hate (CSOH), which analyzed online hate before and after New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary, documented a sharp increase in digital hate speech and Islamophobia on social media in the wake of Mamdani’s primary win.  The study found that in the lead-up to the primary, between June 13 to June 23, 2025, there were...

Advocates Slam Mayor Adams' New Department of Sustainable Delivery Agency

Responding to growing calls to regulate the delivery industry and address concerns about e-bike safety, Mayor Eric Adams announced on July 7 the formation of the Department of Sustainable Delivery (DSD). Adams vowed that the new agency would protect both delivery workers and pedestrians by holding delivery companies accountable for street safety. However, delivery worker advocates beg to differ, saying that the mayor’s DSD agency will instead increase the criminalization of delivery workers,...

Eight Months & No Negotiations: SkyHop Workers Take on a $70M Company - Documented

Eight long months have passed and airport transport drivers for SkyHop Global are still on strike.  The workers allege that SkyHop, an airport transportation company, is refusing to negotiate with them in good faith in their attempt to secure a union contract that guarantees a living wage and health care benefits. They also claim that the company hired anti-union consultants to dissuade workers from joining the union, and then hired replacement workers once they went on strike.  While on t...

Airport Union Alleges Newark Cargo Contractor AGI Violating Federal Labor Law - Documented

More than 100 cargo agents, ticket agents, and cabin cleaners at Newark Liberty International Airport, many of whom are immigrants, may be owed nearly $2 million in benefits supplements from their employer, according to a survey conducted by their union, 32BJ SEIU. The union filed a complaint with the New Jersey Department of Labor against the employer, Alliance Ground International (AGI), for possibly violating New Jersey’s Healthy Terminals Act (HTA).  Passed in 2021, the law requires emplo...

Advocates Say Leaked Farm Bureau Memo Promotes Racist Science - Documented

In the wake of the state’s failure to pass workplace heat protections this legislative session, labor rights advocates are calling a memo that urged lawmakers to vote against the bill racist.   The memo, which was exclusively shared with Documented, was penned by the New York Farm Bureau (NYFB), the state’s largest agricultural industry lobbying group in 2024. In it, the NYFB claimed that claimed that the Temperature Extreme Mitigation Program (T.E.M.P.) Act, legislation that would require em...

New York Workers Left to Sweat After TEMP Act Dies in Albany - Documented

As the summer kicks off with yet another record-breaking heat wave, working New Yorkers who toil under extreme heat conditions are going to have to wait to get some relief.  Last week, the New York Legislature ended its summer session without passing the Temp Act, a bill that would have provided workers legal protections from extreme temperatures. Introduced by New York State Senator Jessica Ramos in 2024, the legislation requires employers in agriculture, construction, landscaping, shipping,...

Rank-and-File Members Push Their Union to Rescind Cuomo Endorsement - Documented

A group of rank-and-file union members from 1199SEIU are hoping to upend the mayoral race tomorrow by submitting a petition to rescind 1199SEIU’s endorsement of Andrew Cuomo for mayor of New York City, citing his record of scandals and close ties to the union’s former president accused of corruption. On Friday, members of New York’s largest healthcare worker union, 1199SEIU, submitted a petition signed by over 350 union members calling on newly elected union President Yvonne Armstrong to rescind...

A Total Knockout: Lucha Libre is a Celebration of Culture, Resilience and Fun - Documented

It was Trump’s birthday. Tanks were rolling down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C, and 5 million protesters flooded the streets of U.S. cities and towns. But in Trump’s hometown of Queens, around 250 New Yorkers wore elaborate, colorful masks to celebrate an integral part of Mexico’s heritage: lucha libre.  At Woodside Queens La Boom, a nightclub in Queens, masked luchadores and luchadoras flung each other across the wrestling ring in an acrobatic spectacle that delighted devoted fans w...

Bangladeshi GrubHub Workers Protest Unfair Deactivations - Documented

Dozens of immigrant Grubhub workers protested outside the company’s Manhattan office Wednesday morning to demand that the company reinstate them after what they say are unjust deactivations. According to organizers with the Workers’ Justice Project (WJP), 52 Bangladeshi GrubHub delivery workers received the same email on June 10 stating that they were deactivated.  The following day, five workers visited WJP’s office seeking help with their deactivation. An hour later, 25 more workers who...

Head of Sham Construction School Pleads Guilty in Death of Immigrant Worker - Documented

Immigrant construction worker Ivan Frias, 36, thought he was certified in fall protection by construction safety school Valor Security & Investigations. But on Nov. 28, 2022, he fell 15 floors to his death while working on a non-union construction site in the Upper West Side.  The school, in fact, was a sham. Court reports later detailed how the school fabricated safety certificates without providing proper training. The night after Frias’s death, workers’ rights activists held a makeshift vi...

New Labor Laws Bring Safety Protections to NYS Warehouse and Retail Workers

Beginning last week, working in the retail industry or in a warehouse in New York has become safer. The Retail Worker Safety Act and the Warehouse Worker Injury Reduction Act both took effect this week, affording workers across the state new labor protections guaranteed under the law. Both bills were sponsored by State Senator Jessica Ramos and passed by the New York Legislature last June.  The Retail Worker Safety Act, which took effect last Wednesday, mandates that retail employers with...

Leading Immigrant Rights Nonprofit Make the Road Lays Off Dozens, Sparking Staff Outcry - Documented Leading Immigrant Rights Nonprofit Make the Road Lays Off Dozens, Sparking Staff Outcry

Internal turmoil has plagued Make the Road New York, the state’s largest immigrant-led community-based organization, with staff speaking out against planned layoffs.  Beginning on May 31, Make the Road New York (MRNY) laid off 32 staff members and reduced the hours of another 15 staff members across five of its community centers. Before the layoffs, MRNY employed 248 people.   With the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrant communities in full swing, staff who spoke exclusively with...

Study Finds Queens Casino Bid Could Displace Over 50,000 Renters

With the New York State Senate voting next month on Mets billionaire owner Steve Cohen’s dream to build a casino, a recently released report suggests that the project could very well displace the communities it purports to serve.  Published on April 29 by the Urban Institute, the study found that the nearby communities of Corona and Flushing, both with sizable immigrant populations, are at risk of rising rent costs as a result of the casino’s potential development. As the majority of resident...

Workers at LaGuardia Airport Demand Heat Protections Amid Rising Temps

It was a sweltering 95 degrees at the tarmac at LaGuardia Airport on July 8, 2024, but for Garvey Barrett, a 68-year-old Jamaican baggage handler for Alliance Ground International, it felt more like the top of a griddle.  A tarmac’s dark pavement absorbs and radiates heat, which means surface temperatures can rise to 20 degrees hotter than the air temperature. “It was one of the hottest days of the year,” Barrett recalled. “We are outside a lot, working hard.” That day, Barrett demanded th...
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