Our Statements

Thursday, October 19, 2023 – Earlier this week, Mayor Eric Adams confirmed his administration’s plan to force asylum-seeking families out of homeless shelters after only 60 days. Under this policy, even asylum-seeking families with very young children in their care would be forced to reapply for shelter every 60 days. Read our full statement here.

Monday, July 3, 2023 – Last Thursday, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) ruled 6-3 against race-conscious admissions programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina, rolling back decades of legal precedent for affirmative action. In a country that continues to be plagued by systemic racism, the Center for Family Representation (CFR) stands firmly against SCOTUS’s abhorrent decision. Read our full statement here.

Friday, May 5, 2023 – Jordan Neely, an unhoused Black man, suffered an apparent mental health episode aboard a Manhattan subway train. Neely reportedly screamed, “I don’t have food, I don’t have a drink, I’m fed up” while throwing his jacket on the floor. Another passenger, an ex-Marine, put Neely in a chokehold while two other men restrained Neely’s arms and legs. Instead of being met with compassion, Neely had his life squeezed out of him by three strangers. Read our full statement here.

Tuesday, April 18, 2023 – The Center for Family Representation (CFR) strongly opposes any rollbacks to the current discovery laws, especially ones negotiated in the secrecy of the New York State budget process. Gutting these laws would diminish prosecutorial accountability and result in more wrongful convictions. Read our full statement here.

Friday, June 24, 2022 – On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) handed down a decision striking down Roe v. Wade, leaving access to legal and safe abortion up to the states – about half of which plan to ban the medical procedure. The Center for Family Representation (CFR) condemns this harmful decision and stands in solidarity with all those whose access to abortion will be restricted or eliminated entirely. Read our full statement here.

Wednesday, May 18, 2022 – On May 14th, 2022, 13 people were killed or injured by an 18-year-old gunman espousing white supremacist ideology. The mass shooting occurred at Tops Supermarket in a primarily Black and Brown neighborhood in Buffalo, New York. Eleven of the victims were Black. No words can soothe the pain and loss that this act of racist terrorism has brought.

As we continue to process this tragic hate crime, we recognize that as an organization, CFR represents primarily Black and Brown families – the same types of families who were violently targeted last weekend. Each day, CFR’s clients routinely face extreme scrutiny by the very systems that are meant to uplift them. Read our full statement here.

Friday, June 4, 2021 – Read our letter to Governor Cuomo, Senate Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins, and Assembly Speaker Heastie to immediately end all suspensions of Articles Three and Ten of the Family Court Act (“FCA”) that were imposed pursuant to Executive Orders issued in response to the pandemic crisis (the “EOs”).

For more than a year, the Executive Orders have been interpreted by the New York City Family Court Administration and many individual Family Court judges as eliminating constitutional and statutory rights of families threatened with separation or juvenile detention in New York State. These orders, in conjunction with Administrative Orders issued by the Chief Administrative Judge, have resulted in great harm to thousands of individuals who have been denied the due process guaranteed by New York law to challenge the separation of families and the detention of children by the government.