Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Delivers Remarks at the 2014 LatinoJustice PRLDEF Gala

November 5, 2014

Mayor Bill de Blasio: There is nothing more wonderful than when a born-and-bred New Yorker makes it big in the national scene, in this case what Sunny’s done at CNN. Let’s thank her for representing New York so well.

[Applause]

It is such an honor to be with you. I deeply appreciate what LatinoJustice stands for, what you’ve done over so many years. This is a kindred crowd, if ever there was one for me, and I appreciate that your commitment never wavers – and it’s been decades. We owe a special thank you to your leader, who is dynamic and focused, and his attention for justice never wavers – let’s thank Juan Cartagena for all he does.

[Applause]

I want to thank some of the folks who make this organization work and who made tonight possible – of course, your Chair Indrani Franchini. Thank you so much.

[Applause]

The gala Co-Chairs Michelle Davila and Pablo Quiñones.

[Applause]

All of the honorees – lets clap for all of the honorees again.

[Applause]

This is a city that speaks many languages, a city that’s home to many people, so let me just say –

[Mayor de Blasio speaks in Spanish]

[Applause]

This organization has been committed to the rights of Latinos, which means you are constantly fighting for the rights of everyone, because the work of protecting rights – making sure they don’t get compressed, but in fact are ever expanding – is the work of rejuvenating our democracy. So, this is a big mission. It’s a constant mission and boy have we gotten some reminders in recent years. The gains in human rights and civil rights have to be earned and fought for and protected every single day. We’ve seen so much in the last few years. We’ve seen it tragically played out in much of this nation, particularly in the southern states – the pulling back of gains when it came to voting rights – the most basic concepts of decency and the availability of the democratic process being undermined year after year – and these fights that seem more reminiscent of 30 and 40 years ago, having to be fought again.

Certainly, the results of the election last night don’t give us any reason to feel better about that dynamic. We’re in a new phase – we’re going to be fighting battles that are eerily reminiscent, and it says to us that we have to remember – any victory, again, has to be won over and over again. I wish my message on this front were cheery. I wish I could say to you that I thought we could rest on laurels, but we can’t. Now again, LatinoJustice knows something about that consistency and that focus, that constancy. What you’ve done to increase participation in elections, what you’ve done to fight discrimination in housing, what you’ve done to create equal opportunity in education – this is work that so many times took decades and decades to achieve, so I don’t think anyone in this room is naive about the challenge.

The good side of the equation – I’m an internal optimist – so even last night I still found some cause for optimism, because the world’s turning. You didn’t get to feel it much last night, but the world is turning. The changes in this country are profound. You know, I was down in North Carolina for the democratic convention the last time, and I’ve been down for other things as well. When you start to think about the growing Latino community of North Carolina and what it will mean to the future of politics of that state alone, when you think about demographic change in this country, when you think about a whole new generation of young and progressive voters, when you think of a whole generation of activists, we are actually ripe for some of the changes we need.

Last night was difficult, but I see a lot of the building blocks still in evidence. I see some people who ran with very progressive visions and made it through last night. It was not one singular message. It was, to me, a call to arms – one that we have to play out over the coming years in a country that’s not making it easy, again, to defend human rights and civil rights, but we know – we know a whole generation of leaders was prepared for this challenge, a lot of them through the work of LatinoJustice.

So, I feel reinvigorated. I feel like we got a big reminder of what we have to do in the years ahead. We’ve seen it happen before. You know, it’s very important juxtaposition to think about last night compared to the night just six years ago when Barack Obama won the presidency. And there was talk that night, you’ll remember, of a sea change having occurred and the fundamental realignment in politics. And if I have one critique it’s that maybe we all believed that a little too quickly and a little too easily. But the fact that as recently as that we saw such a pendulum swing so much in the right direction, the fact that something that was impossible for decades and decades in national health reform finally occurred in large measure in a time when it would seem most unlikely – it keeps reminding us that our values are more eternal than any one election or any one moment in history, that what we’re fighting for is foundational. Human rights, civil rights, people’s ability to live a decent life, to live a life of equality and opportunity – those are values that ultimately win the day. There’ll be some rough points along the way, but those are values that ultimately win the day.

[Applause]

So I won’t keep you longer, but I want to talk for one moment about what we’re trying to do in New York City and how it will continue, regardless of what’s thrown at us on the federal level or in Albany. Some things are going to happen because we have the commitment and we have the support of the people of this city.

Look at what we’re doing in terms of the rights of immigrants. We don’t care if there’s an attempt in this country to stigmatize immigrants even further, to deny our history as Americans as the ultimate nation of immigrants. We are going to respect and acknowledge and embrace everyone amongst us, documented or undocumented, with a municipal ID card this January 1 that’s going to say New York City stands up for immigrants.

[Applause]

And we’re not going to participate in the deportation of good, hardworking people who did nothing wrong, but under the current approach are sent far away from their families and their loved ones. Just this very day –

[Applause]

– just this very day we held a hearing, and we’re preparing in the coming weeks to sign a bill that will change, fundamentally, New York City’s relationship to ICE, and say that for hardworking people who just ended up in the wrong situation but didn’t do anything that really harmed anyone – we’re not going to allow them to be deported. They are our fellow New Yorkers.

[Applause]

And we’re showing that when the federal government won’t act, cities can act. So we’re increasing wages and benefits every way we know how. We passed a paid sick leave law. We have the executive order for a living wage reaching thousands more New Yorkers. New York City will lead even when Washington fails us, because our people are expecting, rightfully, more opportunity, more chance just to be able to make it.

New York City is going to lead on police and community relations. We proved in the last year that you could reduce needless stops fundamentally – you could end a broken stop-and-frisk policy and still keep the city safe.

[Applause]

And we proved that if you want to actually create an opportunity society, it begins with early childhood education. And starting next year, every child at pre-k age in New York City will have full-day pre-k guaranteed to them.

[Applause]

So, it all connects in the end to what I said a moment ago about the national backdrop. There will be good days and bad days – days that remind us of how much more work we have to do – but remember, here in this city, how much, with every passing week and month, we’re continuing to implement a progressive agenda – an agenda that works, that will be an example to so many people who feel the same way around this country and want to do the same thing in their local areas. If you do that enough times, over and over again – you move progressive change at the local level over and over again, and guess what? It becomes national change – and that’s what we’re capable of. And I want to thank LatinoJustice for being in the vanguard of progressive change and being on the vanguard of fighting for human rights and civil rights, year in and year out. God bless you. Muchas gracias. God bless you all. Thank you.