The NYC Commission on Human Rights recently announced new guidelines for enforcing the Human Rights Law.

It is now illegal to refer to a person as an "illegal alien" when the term is used to demean, harass or humilitate the individual. Also in violation of the law, is the harassment or discrimination of someone for using another language or for limited proficiency in English.

An example of violating an individual's rights for speaking another language would be when a store owner tells two friends who are speaking Thai while shopping in his store to “speak English” and “go back to your country.”

New York City has made it illegal to threaten to call ICE based on a discriminatory motive or to tell someone "go back to your country." Hate has no place here. — City of New York

The Commission is currently investigating four cases where threates to call ICE were made to harass, threaten and discriminate against a victim.

Threateing to call Immigration and Customs Enforcement is now illegal if it is done in a discriminatory way.

Failure to adhere to the new guidelines could result in fines of up to $250,000.


Approximately 3.2 million or 37 percent of NYC residents were born outside of the United States. Sixteen percent of the population are non-citizens.