The owner of an apartment in New York will pay $ 17 000 for threatening a tenant with immigration police

A New York judge’s ruling against a landlord could set a new standard for dealing with immigrant tenants in a city.

For most of the seven years that Holly Ondaan lived in her Queens home, she rarely came across a landlord. Everything changed when she started having problems with money and she stopped paying for the apartment, writes The New York Times.

The owner, Diana Lysius, took an aggressive step: in texts and emails, she began to threaten to inform the immigration authorities about Ondaan, a woman of Guyanese descent.

“Give me my money or I'll call ICE the same day,” reads the message presented in the court documents.

The judge ruled that the landlord violated the city’s human rights law and recommended paying 17 000 dollars in the form of a fine and damages. City officials said such a decision could set a new standard for the treatment of immigrant residents.

While discrimination against immigrant housing is common, the judge's recommendation that Lysius pay a $ 5000 fine and $ 12 in damages is highly unusual, if not unprecedented, lawyers for the New York Human Rights Commission said. ...

“We believe this decision not only sets a precedent for protecting potential victims of housing discrimination from threats from ICE, but also for those who would like to engage in such discrimination,” said Sapna Raj, Deputy Commissioner of the Commission's Law Enforcement Bureau. ...

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The case also demonstrates the aggression that can arise when owners of small real estate properties are under financial pressure.

47-year-old Ondaan was one of two residents in a two-family house owned by Lysius in Jamaica, Queens. In the fall, she stopped paying rent. Lysius sued her in a housing court. According to court documents, she also began sending aggressive messages to Ondaan in January 2018, threatening to report to her at the ICE and frightening her with deportation.

At that time, Lysius experienced difficulties with a mortgage and lost the right to purchase leased property. The financial situation probably played a big role in her decision to send threats, said Judge John Spooner.

Lysius contacted the immigration authorities four times to get information on how to file a complaint if there was a suspicion that someone was tampering with the information in order to obtain a green card. Ondaan applied for a green card in February 2018. Lysius claimed that Ondaan fabricated charges against her in order to obtain a green card - but this statement was dismissed by the judge.

Ondaan claims that the threatening messages caused her fear of separation from her 23-year-old daughter, a US citizen, and led her to an “emotional disaster.” The woman started having trouble sleeping, she lost her appetite and almost never left home.

“I was very shocked, I was afraid that someone would be waiting for me when I one day get off the bus and go home or on the way to work. I constantly looked out the window to see all the cars without identification marks, ”Ondaan said. "My daughter was born in America, and if anything happens to me, she will be here alone."

Ondaan was in the United States on an expired tourist visa when she applied for a green card. In accordance with New York law, tenants are protected against discrimination based on their alleged immigration status as well as their actual status.

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In October 2018 of the year, three months after she received the green card, Ondaan left the Queens apartment with a debt of 14 400 dollars for rent, Lysius said in court. Records show that Lysius ceased to be the owner of the house at the end of this month.

The case was one of 160 requests regarding housing and immigration discrimination that were submitted to the commission in fiscal 2018 - an increase from previous years, Raj said.

The actual number of cases of discrimination is probably much higher: immigrants are often afraid to report such cases for fear of deportation.