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AALDEF offices, which are located just blocks from the site of the World Trade Center, were covered with dust for months after the events of September 11, 2001. AALDEF staff witnessed the tragedy unfold, and then have spent the ensuing years helping direct and indirect victims in four ways:
Community Outreach and Education
AALDEF initiated this project after the 9-11 attacks to ensure that the long-term health care, housing and employment needs of low-income Chinatown and Lower Manhattan residents and workers are not neglected in post-9-11 rebuilding efforts. When other disaster relief programs expired in 2003, AALDEF worked with the Beyond Ground Zero Network, a coalition of community-based legal and advocacy organizations, to conduct multilingual outreach and education to inform displaced unemployed workers in Lower Manhattan about their eligibility for the remaining Safe Horizon/September 11th Fund job training and health insurance program. We focused on individuals not eligible for other public assistance programs and undocumented immigrant workers. As a result of AALDEF's multilingual outreach and community education activities, over 1,030 Asian immigrant workers received employment assistance, including career counseling, job readiness training, job referrals, English classes, skills training and income support during job training, and twelve months of free health insurance.
Access to Disaster Relief Assistance
When many Asian immigrant workers were unable to prove they experienced loss of income after 9-11, AALDEF successfully appealed on their behalf to secure assistance through the Safe Horizon/September 11th Fund programs. These workers, whose wages were paid in cash, were forced to "buy paychecks" from their employers in order to establish that they met the weekly salary requirements to qualify for union health coverage. AALDEF secured assistance for over 100 workers who were initially denied job training and health insurance through these programs, after demonstrating that they had experienced a loss of income after 9-11. We also continue to file appeals on behalf of eligible Asian immigrants and families who have been denied disaster relief assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Mortgage and Rental Assistance program and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation's Residential Grant program.
Long-term Health Impacts
Two years after the WTC disaster, the internal watchdog for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported that the agency had been pressured by the White House to lie about the dangers posed by the WTC collapse and tell the public that the air quality was safe. This confirmed what AALDEF has known for the past two years, as we have seen a significant increase in physical and mental health problems among immigrant communities who live or work in Lower Manhattan. After this startling admission by the EPA's Office of the Inspector General in September, AALDEF was asked by Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney to testify about the health needs of Chinatown and the Lower East Side residents at a hearing on the state of New York's post-9-11 recovery. We called for an immediate health registry with health screening as part of long-term health studies covering all of Lower Manhattan. Two days later, the NYC Department of Health announced a limited World Trade Center Health Registry for individuals who were in the area below Chambers Street on 9-11, teachers and school children attending school south of Canal Street, and people who were living below Canal Street on 9-11. We are now working to address the long-term 9-11-related health needs of low-income and undocumented immigrant workers, who have been overlooked by the health registry program and may be reluctant to participate in such a program because of their undocumented status.
Youth Outreach and Services
AALDEF's increased youth outreach and community education activities resulted in numerous requests for legal assistance from South Asian parents and youth. In March, AALDEF represented an 11th grade South Asian Muslim student who was suspended for telling his teacher he feared a terrorist attack. We succeeded in getting the school to remove from his permanent school record the charge that he made a "terrorist threat," on the grounds that it was protected speech under the First Amendment. AALDEF also provided legal advice and consultation to an Afghani immigrant student in Queens, who was repeatedly harassed and profiled by school security and administrators. For a period in early spring, the student had been searched for weapons at least once a week, and nothing was ever found on him. The student believed that he and his peers were targeted because of their ethnicity and appearance, since his friends experienced the same searches. AALDEF provided legal advice to the student and his parents regarding his rights related to the racial profiling incident, and also discussed the option of filing a complaint against school officials. We also assisted an undocumented Korean immigrant student in Queens, who was assaulted near school grounds and feared reporting the incident to school officials or police due to his undocumented immigrant status.
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