Mexican-American immigrant rights activist Manuel Castro, who grew up undocumented in the country, was appointed this Friday as head of the New York City Immigration Affairs office (commissioner) of the city’s new mayor, Eric Adams. .
Castro, who was until now executive director of the New Immigrant Community Empowerment (NICE) organization, an organization that has 15,000 members, will be in charge of facilitating equitable access for immigrant communities to public services offered by the City Council.
In the act of designation, Castro recalled his origins as undocumented and said he was proud to serve in the mayor’s office “to ensure that all migrant communities have the opportunity to recover from the pandemic and have access to all the services they need to thrive in this. town”.
The Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services, Anne Williams-Isom, who will report directly to Castro, said for her part that the municipal government “makes history by having a ‘dreamer’ directing an office that is critical for the thousands of New York migrants who they call this city home. “
He also recalled that Castro has been leading the fight for legislative changes in the city, and now, as commissioner, “he is going to bring energy, discipline and commitment to the halls of this mayor’s office.”
He is not the first Latino that the new mayor appoints to his government team: before him, Adams has appointed Ydanis RodrÃguez, of Dominican origin, in charge of the strategic Department of Transportation, and the Puerto Rican Lisa Flores as director of the Contracting Department and Services.
Adams will formally take office tonight, after 0.01 hours, in a ceremony in the mythical Times Square where the end of the year festivities are celebrated every December 31 and that this year they have not been canceled despite the upsurge in cases of covid- 19.
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