NYC NOW - Evening Roundup: Lawyers for Detained Columbia Grad Demand his Release, NY State Lawmakers Push Back on Hochul’s Budget, Chinatown’s Recovery Post-Pandemic, and TSA Finds a Turtle

Episode Date: March 12, 2025

A detained Palestinian Columbia University graduate student appeared in court Wednesday, as lawyers aim to fend off the Trump administration's attempt to deport him. Plus, Gov. Hochul’s main budget proposals on rebate checks and banning cell phones from schools received pushback in Albany. Also, how New York City’s Chinatown has recovered since the COVID-19 pandemic, when xenophobia and racism against Asian Americans was at an all time high. And finally, TSA agents at Newark Airport detected a live turtle, concealed in a man's pants last week.

From WMYC, this is NYC Now. I'm Jene Pierre. A deportation hearing will decide the fate of a Columbia University graduate. Immigration attorneys were in federal court Wednesday calling for the release of Mahmoo Khalil. He was taken into custody by ICE agents this past weekend. Kalil played a leading role in campus protest against the war in Gaza. Trump himself has called his arrest the first of many to come, as it follows the president's executive order prohibiting anti-Semitism. But New York Civil Liberties Union President Donna Lieberman describes Khalil's arrest this way. Unlawful. It's unconstitutional. And frankly, it's beyond the pale. Khalil's attorney says he's a legal, permanent resident and his wife is a U.S. citizen.

According to detention records, Khalil is being held at a processing center in Louisiana. Both Mayor Adams and Governor Hockel say they're not commenting on the arrest until they have all the facts. In Albany, there's some pushback from New York State lawmakers on some of Governor Hockel's main budget proposals, specifically rebate checks and banning cell phones from schools. WMYC's Jimmy Vilkine has more. Leaders of the New York State Senate say Governor Hockel's plan to send rebate checks to most New Yorkers should be paired back. Democrats in the chamber would instead send the rebate checks to people over age 63 and extend

the program to three years from one. State Senator Liz Kruger says the change. will make the checks more impactful. We've reprogrammed what the governor was proposing to do with $3 billion in a more targeted fashion that will matter to the people. Hockel still wants to send checks to every middle-income person and family. I'm doing everything I can and will continue everything can to get that money back in their pockets. The Senate's proposal signals that budget negotiations are kicking into high gear.

Discussions are also underway on Hockel's proposal to ban cell phones from, quote, bell-to-bell in public schools. But Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins says schools should have the power to set their own rules between classes. That might mean allowing phones at lunch and recess. We've heard from the superintendents who want a little bit of flexibility, so we have injected that into the conversation as well. The senator says she's optimistic a budget can be enacted on time. It's projected to be $252 billion. The deadline is April 1st. It's been five years since COVID-19 shut down the world. For some, it was a double pandemic, causing widespread infections and fatalities,

while also triggering xenophobia and racism against Asian Americans, specifically those of Chinese descent. After the break, we discuss how New York City's Chinatown has recovered since that time. Stay close. When COVID-19 began spreading around the world five years ago, Chinatowns across the nation were among the first places to fill the people. pandemic's impact. Many restaurants and banquet halls, usually filled with revelers celebrating the lunar New Year, sat empty. Plus, xenophobic rhetoric and hate crimes targeting Chinese

American spite, leading to the stop Asian hate campaign. My colleague Sean Carlson wanted to find out how the city's Chinatowns have recovered from those dark days in the five years since. So we talked with Fultonhoe, a volunteer at Send Chinatown Love. It's an organization that supports Asian and immigrant-owned small businesses across all of the city's Chinatowns. Paulin, can we just like step back in time? I know five years ago it feels like it went like that. Can you talk about how Chinatowns across the city's boroughs were impacted by COVID? And what do you remember the most of that time?

Yeah, for sure. I'm currently based in Flushing, grew up in New York, born here. And I think a lot of folks would compare the original couple months of COVID and its impact on Manhattan, Chinatown, almost similarly to. 9-11, post-9-11, the streets were empty, the lights were off, and there was very little foot traffic. Of course, you know, people still had to go about their regular errands. Over the course of the months, I think across the city, there were still folks taking the subways at a time where in Asian hate and xenophobia was at his peak. Even in broad daylight, you know, there were experiences and attacks on Asian communities within Chinatown

streets, in Flushing, in Sunset Park. across the city, and you could really feel the impact. And that was why there were campaigns initially in the first two years about supporting Asian-owned businesses, how different individuals and groups can rally together at a grassroots level to support. It's fair to say that businesses in the city and across the country of all stripes had trouble during the pandemic, given everything shutting down, right? How was that experience different for businesses in Chinatown?

So when COVID happened, of course, you mentioned the xenophiles. the association to the virus itself. That's something that, you know, it's hard to dispel those public perceptions. And so when people receive different pieces of information online, they associate that, especially with Chinese cuisine, with Chinatown in itself. And so in those communities, people feel, it does have a lot of crossover with the willingness to go to Chinatown, to dine at the restaurants there, and be a socialized. or even close to people who are East Asian looking.

Yeah. How has the pandemic changed Chinatowns in the city? Like, how are they different now versus five years ago? I think even if you were to just walk around Chinatown, you can definitely feel the difference. Nowadays, the restaurant's businesses still close very early compared to before the pandemic. Before then, it would be open until 11 p.m. almost past midnight. And now everybody just closes whenever it gets dark, because, there's still a long-going perceived notion regarding public safety and whether or not it's safe to go home or stay safe to walk around. And with different businesses struggling and not being to survive past the pandemic, you see them close up, whether their lease has been, you know, past its five-year period, 10-year periods.

And some of them just feel that the cost of doing business in the city, not just Chinatown, but across the city, it's just been too heavy impertism to, really handle. And so I think them using this as a time to also retire and close up shop, as an individual level, we see that in many cases across kind of the border of Chinatown where there's not as much for traffic.

And when those things closes, we ask the question, who moves in? Are they younger, Asian American folks who grew up here? There are cases like Potla Club and the same owners of Phoenix Palace who do have restaurants that are carrying

that legacy, but outside of that, it's very few Asian Americans continuing that prolonged business and relationship in Chinatown. Often, you think about the outskirts, even in Lower East Side, people consider that dime square. Yeah. And so it's things that like that, you know, physically, you can see the changes and slowly creep up to what we typically associate as like the border or area of Chinatown. Well, during the pandemic, many. young Chinese Americans joined advocacy groups, things like Send Chinatown Love and Welcome to Chinatown to Help the Neighborhood. What do you think that says about the next generation of Chinese Americans in New York City? We see that willingness and that passion just to get involved with community.

I think that seeing groups like Welcome to Chinatown, Meals for Unity, for example, I think all of that is really great and trending toward the right direction. I think we definitely need more younger Asian Americans or just friends, you know, just to help get back and support the local communities. While there are a lot of volunteer opportunities, I think that I personally don't want to encourage like a superficial way of volunteering where it's like self-glamorizing. Yeah. I think that whenever you want to get involved with community, I think you want to approach with humility and try to understand the local environment. Yeah. Well, what are some of the issues that Chinatowns in the city are facing right now?

I guess following the pandemic, the businesses have always dealt with issues on how to navigate a post-pandemic world where there's always changes to regulation. And in the past couple of years, I've noticed, yeah, a lot of businesses that are immigrant-owned with limited proficiency in English, they definitely struggle to adapt and really comply with a lot of the requirements from the city. Do you think that New York City's Chinatowns are in better shape now than they were five years ago? You know, you can't deny that over the years, there's many long-time Chinatown natives who've moved away and to other enclaves where there's a bigger Cantonese population, such as Bensonhurst.

There's Sunset Park where there's a large pocket of Fugnese immigrants as well. And I think folks, if they don't feel that they can afford to live in the areas that they are familiar with, I think they dispersed a little bit. So I would say as a whole, the overall Chinatown, I think more and more are growing, and we also don't want to leave Manhattan Chinatown behind. I see everything happening in Flushing where that is considered the epitome of a lot of people's experience with China. And so all the businesses that are opening there are successful in Flushing. I see that slowly affecting Chinatown because that is the next demographic that the new

business just want to open up it. That's Fulton Hope with Sin Chinatown Love, talking with my colleague Sean Carlson. Before we go, a reminder that should go without saying, your pet turtle cannot fly with you. So find another spring break buddy. The TSA says agents at Newark Airport detected a live turtle concealed in a man's pants last week. Agents discovered the reptile after the traveler triggered a body scanner.

The TSA says after a pat down, the man pulled out a five-inch long red-eared slider from the front of his pants wrapped in a blue towel. Port Authority police confiscated the animal, which appeared to be unharmed. And, of course, the man missed his flight. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WMYC. I'm Jenae Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.