A Queens landlord who reported his tenants to ICE after they complained about him to the city has been slapped with a retaliation charge, the Daily News has learned.
“Our message is loud and clear: we will hold landlords accountable for discrimination in our city,” Mayor de Blasio said in a statement. “We stand with tenants, regardless of their origin, in Queens and across the five boroughs.”
The city would not name the Ridgewood landlord, citing a continuing investigation, or the tenants, out of fear of further retaliation.
The city Commission on Human Rights initially served the landlord with a notice of complaint alleging discrimination in March, after immigrant-advocacy group Make the Road NY alerted them to problems at the building.
The landlord responded by denying the charges – and copying ICE on his letter, which contained the personal information of his tenants.
That, the commission says, violates the city’s Human Rights Law, which prohibits people from retaliating after someone files a discrimination complaint. Sapna V. Raj, an assistant commissioner at the commission, said the commission will continue to go after anyone who retaliates against New Yorkers reporting discrimination.
“Everyone in New York City deserves the right to live free from discrimination and harassment and should not fear for their safety when reporting violations of the Law,” Raj said in a statement.
The charges – which are are administrative, not criminal, but could carry civil penalties of up to $250,000 for “willful and malicious” violations, as well as compensatory damages for victims – are just the latest from the commission targeting landlords who have inquired about or discriminated based on the immigration status of their tenants, which is illegal in New York City.
Earlier this year Queens landlord Jaideep Reddy asked his tenants to prove they were in the U.S. legally or face eviction – a request he rescinded after the News questioned him about it. Reddy was served with a cease and desist letter from the commission.
The commission also recently sent a similar letter to Zara Realty Holding Corp, also in Queens, for discriminating against immigrant tenants, the city said.
The Human Rights Commission has more than doubled its new investigations into discrimination based on immigration status or national origin, jumping from 22 claims in 2015 to 60 claims in 2016.
Some are attributing the spike to President Trump, who vowed during his campaign to build a wall and deport undocumented immigrants.
“While landlords have been threatening to call ICE on immigrant tenants for years, we have seen a significant increase in this form of harassment since Trump was elected,” Ryan Napoli, a senior staff attorney at Make the Road, said in a statement.
Nisha Agarwal, the commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, also pointed to Washington.
“It is very unfortunate that certain bad actors feel emboldened to follow Washington’s lead in hostility towards immigrants,” she said.
