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Announcer 1: Listener supported, WNYC studios.

Janae Pierre: Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. I'm Janae Pierre. This is our one and only episode today. We're taking a day off to observe Veterans Day. Here's your news headlines from Michael Hill.

Michael Hill: Donald Trump's reelection cast doubt on the federal Deferred Action for a Childhood Arrivals program, DACA for short, which shields some immigrants from deportation. WNYC reporter Arun Venugopal says some New Yorkers are preparing for the worst.

Arun Venugopal: Jorge Alguera is 40 and is set to graduate from CUNY Law School next month, but the native Costa Rican and DACA recipient says Trump's reelection represented a doomsday scenario for him. He thinks he'll either need to leave the US after living here for nearly 30 years, or at least exit the formal economy.

Jorge Alguera: It just feels like it's time to sunset operations in a way, clear out whatever debts I have, start saving, and look for ways to not have a footprint in the US Economy.

Arun Venugopal: The DACA program protects from deportation those immigrants who arrived in the US as children. It's currently being challenged in federal court, but Trump has said he wants to end it for good.

Michael Hill: Landlords in the city soon could face more serious punishments for illegally evicting tenants, while tenants could get more protections. The New York City Council is set to hold a hearing tomorrow on several bills on tenant rights. One would explicitly bar landlords who unlawfully evict tenants from accessing city subsidies and tax exemptions for five years. New rules that aim to get piles of smelly trash bags off New York City's sidewalks take effect tomorrow. Residential buildings with nine or fewer units will have to set out their garbage in containers with secure lids for trash pickup. For now, property owners and managers can buy official city bins.

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Janae Pierre: Stay close. There's more after the break.

Announcer 2: This is NYC Now.

Janae Pierre: Last month, Mayor Eric Adams launched a multi agency enforcement effort in Queens in response to what authorities say is a sharp increase in sex work along Roosevelt Avenue. The mayor says the 90-day initiative aims to stop the neighborhood from being taken over by illegal brothels. WNYC's Arun Venugopal says the situation has deeply impacted business owners and local residents.

Arun Venugopal: Himalayan Yak is a restaurant on Roosevelt Avenue right beneath the tracks of the 7 train. Tsomo Dasel is the restaurant's owner, and for the last year she's had a problem. She says at night there are men who gravitate to the neighborhood looking for paid sex.

Tsomo Dasel: When I'm standing outside my business, men pursue me. They come and say, "Hey, hello, beautiful. How are you? Can I get your number?"

Arun Venugopal: It's not just Dasel. Her female employees say they have the same issue, to the extent that she lets some of them off hours early so they can get home without being harassed. Dasel says sex workers on the street have scared away her customers as well. Stories like this prompted Mayor Adams to launch Operation Restore Roosevelt with the help of hundreds of police officers and state troopers.

Mayor Eric Adams: We're here on Roosevelt Avenue to say no more, to ensure that people are able to enjoy their community.

Arun Venugopal: Signs of the crackdown are now in plain sight more than two weeks into the effort. On a recent night, there were cops everywhere on Roosevelt Avenue, walking in pairs or standing in groups of four on street corners. Some cops stopped at bars or clubs to check in with the bouncers. Even with all the police presence, sex work appears to continue on Roosevelt. At one storefront, I watched as men came and went close to 11:00 PM. There was no signage, just a small for rent sign on the door. The curtains were drawn across the entire storefront so you couldn't see inside. As I walked past, there were a couple women who stood outside, one of whom looked at me.

Female Speaker: [unintelligible 00:04:35]

Arun Venugopal: She just asked me if I wanted a massage. I said, "No, thanks." This is an area that is defined by its immigrants, by countless restaurants and trucks selling momos and ceviche, biryani and tacos. Shagor Chowdhury is Bengali and has lived in Jackson Heights for years. He says it's common to encounter people having sex in cars, that many seniors in his community have stopped taking their evening walk, and that parents have to explain to their kids about the used condoms left on the street and the syringes.

Shagor Chowdhury: It's nasty. The impact to our neighborhood is serious.

Arun Venugopal: While some people in the area support the crackdown, others loudly oppose it.

Bianey Garcia: [Spanish language].

Arun Venugopal: This includes sex workers and immigrant rights activists who say the enforcement hurts migrants who turn to sex work out of economic necessity. Bianey Garcia is an organizer with the group Make the Road New York who addressed a rally at Corona Plaza last week.

Bianey Garcia: [Spanish language]

Arun Venugopal: Garcia is saying we're sex workers, not criminals, and argued that the crackdown was designed to serve as a distraction from Mayor Adams own legal troubles. He was indicted on federal corruption charges just weeks before the start of Operation Restore Roosevelt. Garcia and others have called for passage of the Stop Violence in the Sex Trades Act, a state bill that would decriminalize sex work between consenting adults. Others in the community reject that idea, including Frank Taylor. He chairs Community Board 3, whose members represent the area. He thinks it's misguided to compare this city to places where prostitution is legal.

Frank Taylor: No one said this was Amsterdam.

Arun Venugopal: Democrat Jessica Ramos, a state senator from Jackson Heights who is now campaigning for mayor, is a co-sponsor of the decriminalization bill. At the same time, Ramos says she also supports enforcement because things have gotten out of hand.

Senator Jessica Ramos: This is the kind of mid level policing that needs to happen.

Arun Venugopal: On a recent afternoon, we stood outside of Ramos's apartment building just off of Roosevelt Avenue. She gestured across the street from her building to what she said was an active brothel with male clients regularly coming and going.

Senator Jessica Ramos: There are just places like these where nobody has ever done anything about them, and will be told that there's a big investigation or don't go so close because it can be very dangerous. I believe that to be true. It maybe is dangerous.

Arun Venugopal: Alexi Meyers is co chair of the New York State Anti Trafficking Coalition and a former prosecutor. She says what's happening on Roosevelt Avenue isn't a quality of life issue, but a problem deeply intertwined with human trafficking and crime.

Alexi Meyers: This unfettered market benefits organized criminal groups and traffickers.

Arun Venugopal: It's too early to say what the impact of the enforcement action is. The NYPD says they will share data on arrests once the three month operation is done. For now though, Somo Dasel is skeptical. Her restaurant, Himalayan Yak, is located on the same block as that massage parlor that I walked past. Over the last year, Dasel says she regularly called 911 to complain about it.

Tsomo Dasel: I call at least, if not once every week, at least twice a month.

Arun Venugopal: In early September, she felt her efforts had paid off when she received a notification on her citizen app that the site had been raided by police, but her happiness was short lived.

Tsomo Dasel: They were back in business next day, next day.

Arun Venugopal: Which is why Dassal isn't placing too much stock in the city's crackdown. If there is going to be any genuine improvement, she wants to see it with her own eyes. Janae Pierre: That's WNYC's Arun Venugopal. Thanks for listening to NYC Now from WNYC. I'm Janae Pierre. Enjoy the day and thank a veteran. We'll be back on our regular schedule tomorrow.

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