Council May Ask State To Permit Immigrant Vets Into NYPD, FDNY

The City Council is considering a resolution calling on Albany to amend the law to allow non-citizen immigrants who have served in the U.S. military to become firefighters and police officers.

JOHN COOMBS: 'Good enough to serve nation ...'

Currently, only naturalized citizens can be appointed to these positions.

The resolution — sponsored by several Council Members including Kendall Stewart, Letitia James and John Liu — states that more than 30,000 non-citizens from more than 100 countries serve in the armed forces, and that the city has a long tradition of immigrants working as public servants.

'Service Earned Them Right'

"Non-citizens who have honorably served in the United States Armed Forces deserve to be afforded more opportunities as a result of this service," the resolution states.

The Council's Immigration Committee, which Mr. Stewart chairs, will consider the bill during a hearing at City Hall Dec. 10.

John Coombs, the president of the Vulcan Society of black firefighters, praised the resolution, saying that it would usher in much-needed diversity at the FDNY.

"There are numerous immigrants of all backgrounds that would benefit the FDNY," he said. "Even the European immigrants are not represented in the FDNY."

Mr. Coombs, whose organization is involved in a Federal lawsuit against the city alleging that job-testing unfairly keeps the number of black and Latino firefighters down, noted that having more immigrants as firefighters would allow fire companies to better communicate in some communities.

"I would say easily the lack of translators hurts the department," he said.

UFA Head Favors Military

Uniformed Firefighters Association President Steve Cassidy has noted in the past that more recruiting from the military in general would help diversify the department.

It was also a double standard, Mr. Coombs believed, for the city's uniformed forces not to accept immigrants when their national counterparts do.

"How, on the one hand, can we ask individuals to serve their country, which is probably the great task you could ask someone," he said, "and then on a local level say that you're not good enough to serve your city?"