New York residents spent time Thursday talking about how immigration enforcement has affected their lives.

A series of public hearings, called the People's Hearings, are a way to hear from citizens and immigrants from across the country who speak up on the real-life impacts federal immigration enforcement has had on their lives. Today's hearing is the latest stop in a nationwide effort to document the crackdown's effects.

Citizens spoke about experiencing force used by immigration agents. Some speakers had been detained, or had seen the inside of immigration detention centers. Some people spoke anonymously, or directly in front of the cameras.

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Advocates said the hearings were their way of building a public record and effecting changes.

"The reality of what I heard is the same no matter what city I've been in, from Saint Paul to San Antonio. People are being racially profiled and disappeared," said Rochelle Garza, chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. "The right to protest is under attack and people are being killed. Our communities are not going to have true healing until we have accountability from the systems that are causing the harm. And as the midterm election is on the horizon, our country must see immigration enforcement for what it is: A direct undermining of our democracy."

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Advocates hope to conclude the hearings by the end of this year, to deliver a full report to the new congress in 2027.

More than 1,000 Afghan allies of the United States and their families are getting a temporary reprieve after the Trump administration agreed to keep a refugee camp in Qatar open for another nine months.

Camp As Sayliyah, a former U.S. military base in Doha, had been scheduled to close Wednesday. The last-minute extension came after months of pressure from veterans groups, refugee advocates and bipartisan lawmakers who warned that shutting down the camp could leave vulnerable families stranded or in danger.

Many of the Afghans at the camp worked alongside U.S. forces during the two-decade war in Afghanistan. At least 150 are relatives of active-duty or recently separated U.S. service members.

Were very happy about this nine-month extension, Shawn VanDiver, president and founder of AfghanEvac, told Scripps News. We need to see them do the right thing.

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The camp houses Afghans who were evacuated after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. Many expected to eventually resettle in the United States, but Afghan immigration processing was largely halted after a 2025 executive order tied to a security incident involving an Afghan national.

According to AfghanEvac, 1,039 Afghans remain at Camp As Sayliyah today. The organization says 72% are women and children.

These are military family members, VanDiver said. These are families of folks who stood with the United States of America. And every single one of them has earned their shot at the American dream. And now we have a chance to give it to them.

Advocates say many of the evacuees have already undergone extensive screening by the U.S. government before arriving in Qatar. Multiple DHS Inspector General reports have found the vetting process for Afghan allies was effective.

The families of our U.S. military service members are not a threat, VanDiver said. The women who are at this camp are not a threat. The children who are at this camp are not a threat. Nobody at the camp is a threat.

The extension comes as the Trump administration prepares to finalize refugee admissions for fiscal year 2027.

Earlier this month, senior administration officials informed Congress that the administration plans to admit 17,500 refugees next year, with many slots expected to go to white South Africans, also known as Afrikaners.

Presidents determine the annual refugee admissions cap and historically distribute those slots across regions based on humanitarian crises and global conflicts.

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Advocates for Afghan allies say they are now urging the administration to include eligible Afghans already waiting at Camp As Sayliyah in the upcoming refugee plan.

By law, it has to be signed on Thursday, VanDiver said, referring to the presidential refugee determination. That gives us an opportunity, now that we have this nine-month extension at CAS, and we know that the vetting works, as every IG report has said, that the president could include all these folks at CAS who are eligible to come here.

Still, advocates acknowledge the outlook remains uncertain.

Data from the Cato Institute, citing State Department figures through February 2026, show legal immigration from 45 majority-Muslim countries dropped by 96% since December 2024.

Without additional action from the administration, advocates warn many Afghan families could once again face uncertainty when the extension expires next summer.