In a sit-down interview in his Harlem office, I told Espaillat that I had witnessed a constituent in his office earlier looking for a new “golpe” – help applying for citizenship.

He had an office in his apartment and somehow he had a public phone there!” “He must have got the green card for a couple thousand people,” Espaillat said. And he worked with this lawyer, who was the lawyer who got us our green card.”Įspaillat’s great-uncle would send him down to the lower Manhattan immigration office on Church Street to pick up the right forms to bring back to Washington Heights. “The three golpes for him was the green card, a room as a boarder and a job,” Espaillat continued, laughing. “We Dominicans have the three golpes for breakfast, which is the mangú, queso frito and the huevo revuelto,” Espaillat said, describing the classic dish, strictly translated as the “three hits,” of mashed plantains, fried cheese and eggs. His first job was helping out his grandmother’s brother with the three “golpes.” immigration has been part of Espaillat’s life since he was a Dominican-American kid growing up in Upper Manhattan in the 1960s. Helping others navigate the difficulties of U.S. And if any office is equipped to help with immigration issues, it’s Espaillat’s – he’s one of the few members of Congress to have gone through the process himself. It was constituent services at its finest. Citizenship and Immigration Services website. One of the staffers responded in Spanish, bringing her further into the office and translating for her as another staffer walked her through the immigration forms on the U.S. Greeted by two staffers, she explained in halting English that she wanted to know how her grandmother could apply for American citizenship. Adriano Espaillat’s newly opened Harlem office looking for help.

On a Wednesday afternoon in February, a young Latina walked into Rep.

Marisol espaillat strange nights