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Description
Mayor Walsh is committed to having an administration that is accountable to all residents, no matter who you are or where you live. Commissioners Corner introduces you to your city leaders, who will showcase their agencies and discuss information that is important to everyone in this great city. Host, Lois Leonard, is joined by An Le, Policy and Communications Advisor for the Office of Immigrant Advancement.
A
The
president
you've
heard
this
before
is
betraying
800,000
dreamers
across
the
United
States
of
America.
This
is
not
enforceable.
This
is
persecution.
It's
targeting
of
people
groups
of
people
not
because
of
what
they
did,
but
because
of
who
they
are
immigration
status
plays
no
role
in
how
we
treat
our
residents
in
the
city
of
Boston.
We
do
not
discriminate,
we
welcome.
We
protect.
We
embrace
immigrants
because
we
are
all
immigrants,
hi.
B
And
welcome
to
commissioner's
corner
I'm,
your
host
Louis
Leonard
and
thanks
for
joining
us
today
in
order
to
help
Boston's
immigrant
communities
become
active
in
civic,
social
and
cultural
life.
Mayor
Marty
Walsh
created
the
Office
for
immigrant
advancement
to
make
sure
everyone
has
access
to
city
services.
The
office
is
a
busy
one
with
a
small
staff,
and
we
have
the
pleasure
of
speaking
with
unli
their
policy
and
communications
advisor
and
on.
Thank
you
so
much
for
joining
us.
I
know
you
guys
are
very
very
busy
these
days.
What's.
B
C
Boston
residents,
sometimes
not
residents,
sometimes
you'll,
just
work
in
Boston
mm-hmm,
who
have
various
questions
about
access
to
city
services,
oftentimes,
questions
about
immigration,
law
and
immigration,
status
and
volume
in
terms
of
those
folks
coming
by
and
calling
us
has
gone
up
by
quite
a
bit,
it's
kind
of
about
40%
this
past
year.
Why.
C
I
think
there's
an
increased
attention
nationally
to
immigration
issues,
and
you
know
there
are,
is
a
greater
sense
of
anxiety
and
fear
due
to
national
rhetoric
from
people
who
are
immigrants,
regardless
of
whether
or
not
they
have
immigration
status
or
any
sort
of
financial
stability.
That
sort
of
thing,
I
think
there's
just
a
general
sense
of
being
less
welcomed
than
they
were
before
sure.
B
C
B
C
And
you
know
we
certainly
don't
want
to
be
a
city
where
folks
are
so
scared
that
they
don't
live
their
lives,
that
they
don't
go
to
work
or
take
their
children
to
school
or
go
to
their
their
medical
appointments,
and
so
we're
doing
the
best.
We
can
to
try
to
provide
accurate
information
so
that
immigrant
communities
feel
safer
if
you'll
have
some
level
of
safety
and
and
protection-
and
you
know
have
this
sense
of
welcoming
that
we're
trying
to
have
that
says
that
you
know
they
are
part
of
our
community.
C
C
We're
approached
by
people
who
do
have
work
visas
who
are
here
who
are
concerned
because
their
work
visas
are
temporary
and
they
want
to
be
able
to
renew
possibly
or
stay
longer
or
start
their
own
businesses
as
well,
and
so
we
have
a
wonderful
relationship
with
the
mayor's
economic
development
cabinet
and
their
global
affairs
team
and
the
office
of
workforce
development,
and
they
are
so
well
versed
in
these
issues
and
its
office
of
business
development
right.
We
have
these
great
neighborhood
business
managers,
so
these
folks
are
so
well
versed
on
immigrant
issues.
C
B
C
There
are
various
factors,
I
think
sometimes,
when
folks
I
just
arrived
into
the
United
States,
it's
more
difficult
to
find
jobs
due
to
less
social
capital
and
folks
are
willing
to
settle
for
time
being
for
a
lower
paying
job
and
then,
as
social
capital
builds
and
as
folks
are
able
to
have
stronger
English
proficiency
or
increase
education,
have
a
better
social
network,
they're
able
to
find
better
paying
jobs.
I.
Recently,
the
conference
and
I
heard
sort
of
a
great
shorthand
for
financial
stability
for
immigrants.
C
C
It's
it's
been,
it
is
the
biggest
barrier
you're
right,
and
so
in
that
regard,
we
have
is
sort
of
a
two
way
approach
to
that.
The
first
approach
is
increasing
access
to
high
quality,
targeted,
adult
English
classes,
so
we
have
a
partnership
with
a
nonprofit
organization
called
English
for
new
Bostonians
and
it's
a
public-private,
Community,
Partnership,
sort
of
nonprofit
that
gives
grants
to
English
programs
and
then
provides
technical
assistance
to
help
guide
them.
So
it's
high-quality,
but
even
then
the
wait
lists
are
quite
long.
C
You
know
I've
heard
it's
in
the
direction
of
a
year
and
a
half
to
two
years.
We
wait
for
people
that
want
adult
English
classes
and
are
unable
to
or
unwilling
to
go
to
a
purely
private
program
which
might
be
cost
prohibitive.
The
other
direction
is
the
language
access
ordinance
that
we
have
in
the
city
of
Boston.
It's
a
it's
called
the
communications
access
ordinance,
so
it
combines
both
languages
due
to
country
of
origin
and
also
modes
of
communication
due
to
disability
right.
C
So
things
like
Braille
and
American
sign
language
and
what
that
ordinance
has
been
able
to
do
is
that
the
city
has
now
hired
a
coordinator
and
we
have
a
person
to
help
implement
that
ordinance,
which
increases
language,
accessibility
and
communication
accessibility
for
people
trying
to
interface
with
the
city
government.
So
if
somebody,
you
know
it's
it's
in
the
process
of
being
rolled
out
right
now.
B
Know
well,
I
know
our
hard-working
immigrants
recently
inspired
some
beautiful
artwork
in
the
form
of
murals
and
Boston
actually
jumped
on
a
national
campaign.
That's
called
to
immigrants
with
love,
so
I
believe
we
have
some
shots,
and
these
are
in
two
of
our
neighborhoods,
both
in
Roslindale
and
East
Boston.
So
maybe
you
can
tell
a
little
bit
about
what
inspired
these.
These
artworks
yeah.
C
Absolutely
so
two
immigrants
with
love
is
this
national
campaign.
It's
a
sort
of
a
social
media,
postcard
campaign
where
participants
can
write
little
messages
and
take
photos
and
post
it
on
social
media,
to
sort
of
send
messages
of
love
welcoming
to
immigrants
generally,
and
we
had
a
former
intern
come
up
with
this
idea
of
well.
Why
can't
we
make
this
a
more
sort
of
a
broad
scale
sort
of
postcard?
And
so
we
had
this
public
art
campaign
phase.
C
One
just
finished:
that's
these
two
murals
and
it
focuses
on
Boston's,
immigrant,
past
and
present,
and
so
what
they
decided
to
do.
We
did
this
with
the
mayor's
mural
crew,
which
is
part
of
the
office
of
arts
and
culture,
and
you
know
the
mural
crew
is
mostly
made
up
of
the
city's
youth
during
their
summer
jobs
program,
and
we
chose
subjects
who
sort
of
represented
the
immigrant
history
of
the
earlier
20th
century
for
these
particular
neighborhoods
and
current
immigrants
who
are
sort
of
prominent
faces
in
these
neighborhoods.
C
Now
so
in
East
Boston
for
the
historic
immigrant,
we
have
sort
of
the
patriarch
of
the
sureiy
family
and
they
still
own
and
operate
a
deli
there
and
for
the
current
immigrant
we
had
Veronica
Robles
and
she
runs
a
cultural
center
there
and
she's
sort
of
a
a
great
sort
of
community
icon
of
sorts.
And
you
know
so.
We
have
an
immigrant
from
Sicily
and
we
have
an
immigrant
from
Mexico,
but
also
wonderful
is
when
we
had
our
unveiling
sort
of
party.
It
was
amazing
how
similar
their
messages
were
and.
C
Were
this
it's
not
just
about
their
portraits
on
the
wall,
it's
about
the
whole
community
coming
together
to
support
each
other,
and
we
have
a
similar
set
up
in
Roslindale.
In
fact,
the
the
historic
immigrants
are
a
couple
in
Roslindale
and
their
descendants
own
the
the
store
in
which
the
the
mural
is
on.
A
C
Right
and
they
were
from
Russia
and
they're
from
the
Eastern
European
sort
of
Jewish
Diaspora
that
they
came
to
the
United
States
again
in
the
earlier
part
of
the
20th
century,
and
then
we
have
a
current
business
owner
from
the
Dominican
Republic
Alex
Alex
Castillo
excuse
me
and
he
he's
sort
of
like
the
American
dream,
like
kind
of
that,
it
may
be
a
stereotype,
but
he
kind
of
fits
into
it
right.
He
came
here.
He
wants
to
help
people
with
his
his
technical
expertise
and-
and
he
has
a
he
has
two
jobs.
C
C
B
I
encourage
everyone
to
take
a
ride
by
and
go
see
those
beautiful
pictures
up
on
the
wall,
I'd
like
to
change
the
course
of
conversation
at
the
moment
and
talk
about
the
changes.
The
policy
changes
that
are
going
on
our
federal
government
very
recently
rescinded
the
deferred
action
for
childhood
arrivals.
What
we
know
is
daca:
how
is
your
office
helping
the
city
cope
with
these
changes?
Sure.
C
C
We
have
helped
to
promote
these
sorts
of
duct
renewal
services
that
are
free
that
are
being
offered
at
the
various
nonprofit
partner
organizations
and
eastern
bank.
Our
bail
insurance,
Harvard
Pilgrim
health
care
and
the
Boston
foundation
announced
a
local
fund
for
people
who
are
able
to
renew
their
daca
status
is
not
really
a
status
but
to
renew
daca
for
themselves
within
the
time
window.
B
C
B
I
imagine
that
many
people
aren't
aware
of
the
time
constraints
and
I.
Think
a
lot
of
laws
and
rules
seem
to
constantly
be
changing
it's
hard
for
most
of
us
to
keep
up
so
I.
Imagine
there
are
a
lot
of
misconceptions
out
there.
What
are
some
of
the
most
some
of
the
more
frustrating
misconceptions
that
your
office
finds
sure.
C
And-
and
you
know
we
try
to
you-
try
to
address
these
things
with
our
immigration
clinic
and
with
information
or
no
website,
but
it
doesn't
always
get
across
right.
You
know,
one
common
misconception
is:
is
that
folks
just
need
to
get
in
line
and
and
so
then
sometimes
folks
call
our
office
or
come
come
to
our
office
and
they
say
hi.
B
C
C
C
B
B
C
Nonprofit
partner
project,
citizenship,
screens
them
screens
callers
ahead
of
time
before
giving
them
an
appointment
slot
to
come.
It
helps
them
get
free,
go
help
in
actually
filling
out
their
form
to
apply
for
US
citizenship
and
then
follows
up
with
them
to
make
sure
that
they're
fully
supported
throughout
the
whole
process.
All
the
way
up
to
the
oath
ceremony
sounds.
C
B
A
Incredible
day
here
in
the
city
citizen,
citizenship
day,
we
have
volunteers
from
law
firms.
We
have
a
lot
of
volunteers
from
schools.
We
have
companies
in
Boston
and
around
it's
an
incredible
day,
along
with
the
staff
from
the
office
of
advancement
in
the
city
of
Boston
other
staff
day.
These
are
folks
that
have
have
a
green
card
and
we're
trying
to
encourage
them
and
push
them
towards
getting.
This
is
shipping
by
the
end
of
the
day,
that
probably
would
have
seen
on
Florida
people
on.
B
C
Well,
one
thing
we
do
in
our
office
is:
we
do
try
to
focus
on
the
positive
with
this
welcoming
message,
this
message
of
advancement
and
inclusion,
and
we
have
even
large
events
like
the
we,
our
Boston
gala,
to
celebrate
our
diversity
and
heritage.
But
when
I
hear
immigration,
reform,
I
think
about
the
system
needing
reform,
not
the
people
needing
reform
right
in
our
office
is
about
immigrant
advancement.
C
We
focus
on
the
people
right,
and
this
system
is
what
needs
to
become
more
sensible,
more
compassionate,
more
humane,
be
more
consistent
with
itself,
even
and
so
that's
what
we're
talking
about
when
we
say
comprehensive
immigration
reform,
that's
what
the
mayor's
advocating
for
in
terms
of
a
legislative,
long
term,
statutory
solution
to
a
very
broken
immigration
system.
Right
now.
Well,.
B
B
You
and
our
viewers:
what
are
you
your
thoughts?
Look
to
your
left
then
look
to
your
right.
What
do
you
want
for
your
city
and
how
can
you
make
a
difference?
Please
visit
their
website,
boston,
gov,
slash,
immigrants
be
informed
and
let's
continue
to
keep
Boston
strong
and
a
city
where
we're
proud
to
live
and
work
thanks
for
joining
us,
I'm,
Louis,
Leonard
and
we'll
see
you
next
time
on
commissioners
corner.