Congrats to Linares and to NYC
El Diario

It's heartwarming to see good friends do well. Guillermo Linares has been a good friend and tireless worker not only for the Dominican and Latino communities but for New York City as well. Yesterday Mayor Michael Bloomberg appointed the former City Councilman to be Commissioner of the Mayors Office of Immigrant Affairs. Linares is an excellent choice.An immigrant himself, Linares was a parent organizer in Washington Heights, where he helped Dominicans and other mothers and fathers lobby for a better education for their children. He encouraged them to vote in school district elections, which were open to non-citizens because the only requirement was that you have a child attending public school. He headed the Community Association of Progressive Dominicans (Asociación Comunal de Dominicanos Progresistas), a non-profit organization in Washington Heights that helps people access services and offers citizenship, GED and English classes. He was elected a member of the community school board in troubled District 6 in Washington Heights, a board that was eventually suspended by the city despite the best efforts of Linares and others. Nevertheless he emerged as a leader.

In 1991 Linares became the first Dominican to be elected to the City Council. Almost immediately he was called on to keep the Washington Heights community calm, taking to the streets to quell the civil disturbances that erupted when José Luis García was shot and killed by a police officer shortly before the start of the Democratic National Convention in New York in 1992.

His gentle fortitude served him well in the City Council, where he excelled at negotiation and compromise and continued to champion education issues and the needs of his community. He took a difficult stand in supporting a controversial proposal to open a Pathmark supermarket in Upper Manhattan. After 10 years, he left office because of term limits.

These are fearful times for immigrants. The post 9/11 atmosphere has lead to efforts that have directly or indirectly curtailed immigrants' rights. Immigrants are vulnerable in other ways. Earlier this week Mayor Bloomberg signed a law to protect immigrants from notary publics who pass themselves off as attorneys. But last month a proposal for city immigrant programs that had originally been budgeted at $5 million was approved for just $2.8 million.

Guillermo Linares has proven himself to be a champion of immigrants and of all people whose rights are in peril. His political skills and strengths as a leader are an asset to the Bloomberg administration. In a city of immigrants and naturalized citizens, along with their U.S. born children and grandchildren, this is an important constituency indeed. The city needs him and we applaud Mayor Bloomberg's very smart decision to appoint him. Que Diós te bendiga, Guillermo.