Dear Neighbor, 

I hope you’re having a great October. Before we celebrate some of our community members, I wanted to make sure everyone has access to the State Department resources for those in Israel and Gaza. You can find our newsletter with all of those resources here. We’ll be sure to update you with any new information they provide and our team is always here to help you. I also want to make sure everyone in our NY-16 community has the context for my vote against last night’s pro-war and anti-peace resolution, you can read my statement here.

Celebrating our NY-16 community is one of my favorite parts of being your Congressman, so I want to shout out some incredible Latina constituents in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month that just wrapped up, and share how my constituent services team has been helping our community lately. Check it out!

Evelyn Alicea-Santiago is a community advocate from White Plains with over 30 years of experience in education. Her advocacy for English to Speakers of Other Languages students led her to broader community organizing. She holds leadership positions on the Westchester County Hispanic Advisory Board, the Westchester County Rent Guidelines Board, and Comité Noviembre, which has proudly raised almost $600,000 for the Hurricane Maria response in Puerto Rico. Evelyn is the Founder and Chair of the White Plains Puerto Rican Cultural Committee and most recently became a cultural ambassador for the 'Junte Boricua' initiative launched by Luis Miranda. I am so grateful for people like Evelyn who are deeply committed to serving our NY-16 community.

We’re also lucky to have the incredible Isabella Grullon in NY-16. Isabella is a junior at Hunter College from Yonkers. She works at the NY Birth Control Access Project as a Project Lead, aiding legislative efforts to protect and expand access to contraceptives. Isabella also serves as Hunter's board representative to New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG), coordinating grassroots efforts across campuses to advocate for environmental justice and the New Deal for CUNY. It is so good to see hard working young people like Isabella fighting for change in New York.

In case you didn’t know, my office and I provide information and services to constituents. You can reach out to us for letters of support, information on government benefits, and help with federal agencies. Here are a few ways we’ve helped our constituents recently!

A 9/11 first responder from White Plains abruptly stopped receiving the home nurse visits he was entitled to through the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund, which he needed to support him through his cancer. Our office alerted the CDC immediately and his home nursing schedule returned to normal soon after. In another medical case, a veteran requested our assistance to schedule an appointment at the VA Medical Center in the Bronx. Our team reached out to the VA and scheduled it for him that same day. 

We also had constituents from Scarsdale reach out to our office about the status of applications for work authorization and permanent residence that they had submitted 4 years ago. Our team contacted United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and submitted an expediting request because the constituents were facing financial difficulties and health concerns. USCIS then granted the work authorization and scheduled an interview for the permanent residence application. Our community also had a newly arrived New Rochelle constituent from Venezuela who was seeking assistance in expediting his Employment Authorization. He was in dire need of a source of income to sustain himself and was facing potential homelessness. Our office contacted USCIS and, after he submitted evidence of hardship, the agency approved his work authorization in less than 30 days.

A Yonkers constituent had been struggling to obtain her passport since March because she received a letter saying she had to submit new pictures without any part of her wheelchair headrest being visible. She is a wheelchair user with cerebral palsy, so that wasn’t feasible for her. Our office contacted the Passport Agency to make sure she was accommodated and she got her passport in time for her trip. Our team also helped a senior citizen who had paid a passport application fee, but the application had gone unprocessed for over a year. We intervened and got the constituent a full refund. Similarly, another constituent had applied to renew their Global Entry program membership, but didn’t receive a response to their application for over a year. After advocacy from our team, their application was approved and made available for immediate use.

Our office is always hard at work for the NY-16 community. Here are some other ways we can help: 

• If you’re visiting DC and you want to tour the capitol or another federal tourist site, our office can help! Click here for more information. 

• Our office provides certificates and proclamations honoring individuals or organizations throughout the district. If you would like one, complete the form here.

• Members of Congress are authorized by law to nominate candidates for appointment to four U.S. service academies. If you are interested in applying, applications are due on November 1, 2023. Check out our website for more information or email ServiceAcademy.Bowman@mail.house.gov.

• Student loan payments resumed on October 1, 2023. The Biden administration has created new programs that might reduce payments or eliminate your debt. To learn more, visit the Department of Education’s website. 

• Our office is currently accepting submissions for the annual congressional app design challenge. We are looking to recruit students from our district who would be interested in participating in this unique opportunity. For more information on the program, visit congressionalappchallenge.us. Submissions are due on Wednesday, November 1st at 12pm. Reach out to Patrick Magliocchino at Patrick.magliocchino@mail.house.gov if you have any questions. 

If you need assistance with any federal agency, you can find us at one of our upcoming Mobile Constituent Services, email us at Bowman.Casework@mail.house.gov, or call our office at the numbers below.

Peace and love,

Congressman Jamaal Bowman Ed.D.