Bronx immigration lawyer scammed clients out of thousands in yearslong scheme: AG
Attorney General Letitia James on Jan. 22 announced charges against Bronx immigration lawyer Kofi Amankwaa, who allegedly scammed clients out of thousands of dollars from 2016 to 2023, causing some to have their green cards denied and several others to be deported.
Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced a parallel criminal case against Amankwaa and associates for their “large-scale immigration fraud scheme.”
According to James’ office, clients were not informed of these petitions and refused to go along with the lie when questioned by immigration authorities, which, in some cases, led to their deportation.
In addition to these false claims, staff in Amankwaa’s office allegedly provided advice that they were not qualified to give. Nana Adoma Kontoh and Kofi Amankwaa, Jr., are not licensed attorneys but misrepresented themselves to clients as such, according to the attorney general.
Accusations against Amankwaa began to come to light last year, and the local immigration news site Documented interviewed some families impacted by the scam. In November 2023, Amankwaa’s law license was suspended.
In the statement announcing the criminal charges, Williams said that Amankwaa and Amankwaa, Jr. “sought to make a mockery of the U.S. immigration system.”
‘Be Bronx, Be Big’ campaign recruits adult mentors for borough’s youth
If you’ve ever thought of yourself as a role model for kids, now is the perfect time to make it official.
Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson and Big Brothers Big Sisters of NYC on Tuesday, Jan. 23, announced the kickoff of the “Be Bronx, Be Big” campaign to increase youth mentorship in the Bronx.
The campaign joins a push for more youth programming in the borough, as concerns over youth crime and lack of positive opportunities have grown.
While Big Brothers Big Sisters of NYC is an organization with huge reach, serving over 2,500 young people over the 2021 fiscal year, only 21 percent were from the Bronx — second to last behind Staten Island.
Gibson wants those numbers to be much higher. She said that her office will take the “Be Bronx, Be Big” initiative to every corner of the borough “from Community Board 1 to Community Board 12,” engaging both youth and adults.
“We are going to occupy the high schools,” Gibson said, noting the many young leaders she meets on a regular basis who would thrive under mentorship of a caring adult.
“They may not be our biological children, but they are our babies,” Gibson said.
She also expressed concern that Bronx youth are often paired with mentors who do not share their background. “We want to make sure that Bronx kids, Bronx scholars, have leaders and mentors that look just like them and represent the same communities and that they are a reflection of our diversity,” said Gibson.
Column: CUNY students are stepping up to support asylum seekers
Jorge Alguera was 11 years old when he came to New York from Costa Rica with his family in 1995, launching his journey as an undocumented immigrant. He found open doors at CUNY, graduated from Queens College and became a recipient of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) at 29. Now, as a student at the CUNY School of Law, he is providing legal assistance to asylum seekers through the school’s new Emerging Needs Clinics, part of a wide-ranging CUNY effort to support New York’s newly arrived migrants.
“Being able to help new arrivals is a full circle moment that I cherish,” he says. “We see people from so many countries, from Senegal to Ecuador, and if we can help them avoid having to go years living in the shadows, we can change their lives and the trajectory of generations beyond.”
CUNY has a long and proud tradition of welcoming immigrants to the city, helping them become new Americans and propelling them up the economic ladder. The CUNY community also has a proud tradition of stepping up whenever the city has faced a major challenge — including during the COVID-19 pandemic. We have often mobilized our students, who are uniquely positioned to put their diverse experiences, compassion and sense of social justice into action.
And in CUNY Citizenship Now! — for more than 25 years the nation’s foremost university-based immigration law program — CUNY has the expertise, experience and structure to make a difference in the lives of migrants as they try to navigate a daunting and chaotic immigration system and an intimidating city.
Bronx district attorney’s office raises awareness for human trafficking through red sand event
On Jan. 23, the Bronx district attorney’s office, DA Darcel Clark and Not On My Watch Inc. (NOMW) hosted a Human Trafficking Awareness Red Sand Project event. This event was held at the Office of the Bronx County’s District Attorney in honor of National Human Trafficking Prevention Month.
The Red Sand Project artwork is where red sand is poured into pavement cracks. The red sand is symbolic to millions of men, women and children who “fall through the cracks” being forced to do the unimaginable such as forced sex or labor.
Average Bronx rent prices increased by nearly 8% in 2023: report
Within the past year, average Bronx rent prices jumped up by 7.91%, with an average price of $2,391, according to a report by MNS Real Estate NYC. The borough had the second highest average rent increase in 2023, following Queens, which had a 9.06% increase.
Brooklyn saw a 5.76% increase and Manhattan’s non-doorman rentals saw a 3.8% increase, according to the MNS report. No data was offered for Staten Island.
Andrew Barrocas, the CEO of MNS, attributes the increase in Bronx rent prices to the influx of new housing by large developers, referencing Brookfield Properties and RXR Realty.
“We had a lot of large developers go into (the Bronx) looking to build luxury products,” Barrocas said. “There’s a combination of new housing brought to the area by certain developers that are larger, more experienced and have good reputations, and you’re seeing it reflected in the pricing.”
Rent for studio apartments in the Bronx rose by 9.67% — a greater price jump than either one-bedroom or two-bedroom apartments — with a mean price of $2,086.
In 2023, one-bedroom apartments in the Bronx cost $2,272 on average, a 8.41% increase from 2022. Two-bedroom apartments sat at an average rental price of $2,815, rising by 6.24% from the year before.
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