Janae Pierre: Rye Playland opens on Memorial day weekend, a $750 million settlement reached over a former doctor's sex abuse, New York State could weaken oversight for religious schools, and immigrants waive voluntary departures. From WNYC, this is NYC NOW. I'm Janae Pierre.

We begin with some pretty good news out of Westchester County. Officials say Rye Playland Amusement Park will open in time for the season this spring after all. The park's opening for 2025 had been in peril amid a dispute with operator, Standard Amusement. County officials accused them of abandoning their contract and leaving the park in shambles. Standard officials say the county didn't make promised infrastructure upgrades, but Westchester County Executive Kenneth Jenkins says the county is committed to keeping the century old park's legacy alive.

Kenneth Jenkins: We all love Playland. It's part of all of us. We have to do this, and we will do it safely and responsibly.

Janae Pierre: Another company is now handling inspections and repairs. Officials say the amusement park will be free on Memorial Day weekend when it opens up.

Two New York City hospitals have agreed to a $750 million settlement of hundreds of sexual abuse claims by patients of former gynecologist Robert Hadden. Lawyers for the plaintiffs say it brings the total legal payouts to over $1 billion. Hadden was accused of molesting patients during a decades long career at city hospitals, including Columbia University Irving Medical Center and New York-Presbyterian. He was convicted in 2023 of federal sex crime charges and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Lawyers for the hospitals did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment.

New York State lawmakers are loosening requirements for private and religious schools to show they provide a basic education. WNYC's Jimmy Vielkind has more.

Jimmy Vielkind: Private schools must show their instruction is substantially equivalent to public schools. Governor Hochul says she's reached a deal to give schools as much as seven more years to comply with regulations that took effect in 2022. That includes orthodox Jewish yeshivas whose allies pushed for the change.

Kathy Hochul: We're not eliminating the requirement. We're just adding more pathways for people to be compliant.

Jimmy Vielkind: State Education Commissioner Betty Rosa says the existing regulations make sure students are prepared for jobs.

Betty Rosa: Watering down this issue does not serve our children well.

Jimmy Vielkind: Lawmakers are set to vote on the proposal this week.

Janae Pierre: Some undocumented immigrants in New York are opting to leave the country on their own rather than risk deportation. More on that after the break.

[music]

Announcer: NYC NOW.

Janae Pierre: The Trump administration says it will give undocumented immigrants $1,000 if they leave the country or self-deport, as the officials put it. A more formal term is voluntary departure. As WNYC's Arun Venugopal found, even before the incentive was offered, some of the city's immigrants have been quietly complying.

Arun Venugopal: Yahya is a resident of the Bronx who practices Afro Caribbean faith traditions, and on a recent day, as she stood in front of an altar in her living room and sang to Yemaya, the goddess of the sea, she was overcome with emotion.

Yahya: It's a good kind of cry.

Arun Venugopal: Her husband, Jose, sat nearby, watching his wife. Yahya is a US native, but Jose is an asylum applicant from Venezuela. They spoke on condition they wouldn't be fully identified due to Jose's immigration status. Out of fear that he'll be picked up in an immigration raid or detained in a foreign country, the couple have decided to leave the United States.

Yahya: They're coming for a everyone. There's no due cause, there's no due process, so it means making real decisions about what keeps your family safe.

Arun Venugopal: They're not alone. Lawyers and immigrant rights activists say people are leaving the country, often quietly and from communities who've watched as longtime immigrants have been sent back to their native country in shackles or held in Central American prisons. The Trump administration has aggressively marketed the measure, saying it's easy. This is Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in an interview with CBS News.

Reporter: The message there is self deport now, or this could be you.

Kristi Noem: Absolutely. That is absolutely the message is that you have the option to go home on your own terms. We'll help you with a plane ticket, we'll get you booked, we'll facilitate it, and you get the chance to come back.

Arun Venugopal: In a statement to WNYC, the Department of Homeland Security said thousands of people have left the United States on their own so far. At the same time, the administration's efforts to deport immigrants by conventional means are far behind their stated targets. Immigration lawyers say some of those leaving the US have spent years trying to attain legal status here.

Pertinderjit Hora: I think they're just feeling like, what is it that we are striving for?

Arun Venugopal: Pertinderjit Hora is a lawyer in Richmond Hill, Queens, and says seven of her clients have left the US, all men over the age of 60.

Pertinderjit Hora: They don't have this fight left in them anymore.

Arun Venugopal: Some attorneys and advocates discourage their clients from leaving.

Nuala O'Doherty-Naranjo: A lot of people have nothing to go back to.

Arun Venugopal: Nuala O'Doherty-Naranjo runs the Jackson Heights Immigrant Center.

Nuala O'Doherty-Naranjo: They've sold their house, they've abandoned family members to come here. How do you go back without the situation being solved? If you're fleeing persecution where people are trying to kill you and you've given up everything to get here to be safe, how do you go back to the danger?

Arun Venugopal: Jose and Yahya have made up their minds. They say they've researched their options and hope to move to one of four countries, Canada, Spain, Mexico, or Colombia, each of which has pros and cons in terms of language, cost, and ease of finding work or legal status. They're debating what to take with them. The cat will likely go, the fish and fish tank will stay behind. Yahya says her older son from a previous marriage can decide whether he wants to come. The couple planned to get a passport for their youngest, a baby boy who was born just days before we met.

Yahya: It's been a long day. I know.

Arun Venugopal: Back in Venezuela, Jose was a risk assessment analyst for the government. He fled the country after his life was threatened on multiple occasions. The US appeared to be the country of liberties, he said. Then he moved here, found work as a bicycle deliverista, and saw an entirely different side of the country.

Jose: [Spanish language]

Arun Venugopal: He says he saw deportations, unjust ones, people deprived of due process. Now he's afraid for himself, for his wife, and for their baby. The family keeps shifting between various friends and family members' homes, safe houses, as they call them. As we spoke in one of them, Jose held his newborn in his arms.

Jose: [Spanish language]

Arun Venugopal: He says, "This moment can feel amazing, to have my son in my arms, a roof, food to eat, my family, but as soon as we finish this interview, I need to get on that bike. I need to go outside and find work, and I don't know what's going to happen."

[music]

Janae Pierre: That's WNYC's Arun Venugopal. Spring sure has been lovely, but there's a sign that summer is coming in hot. The schedule of free summer shows in Prospect Park was released Wednesday. BRIC celebrate Brooklyn's lineup for this year's summer festivals includes 14 free shows and four paid benefit concerts for the nonprofit organization. Among them, headliners Grace Jones and Janelle Monae on June 9th, Dinosaur Jr. and Snail Mail on July 17th, and so many more. You can find all the details at our news site, Gothamist. Thanks for listening to NYC NOW from WNYC. I'm Janae Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.

Copyright © 2025 New York Public Radio. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use at www.wnyc.org for further information.

New York Public Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline, often by contractors. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of New York Public Radio’s programming is the audio record.