Immigrant ARC Responds to Council’s Push for Additional $50M in Funding for Immigration Legal Services
New York, NY - April 5, 2024 - Immigrant ARC is happy to see that, after years of advocacy from community-based organizations, legal service providers, and immigrant rights organizers, the City Council has taken the initiative to meet the needs of the moment and is calling on the Mayor to restore his funding cuts and allocate an additional $50 million for immigration legal services in the FY25 City Budget.
We have let thousands of our newest New Yorkers fall through the cracks of our immigration system for too long. Many are facing our immigration system with no representation, which means they are missing out on legal avenues to immigration relief and access to work authorization. It is clear that the New York City Council understands that for our City to flourish, our newly arriving and longstanding immigrant communities need to be given the tools they need to obtain long-term status, work authorization, and economic stability. The arrival of our new neighbors is an opportunity to build long-term immigration legal infrastructure that would benefit both new migrants and existing immigrant communities and allow people to access legal pathways to immigration. This not only benefits our immigrant communities but NYC as a whole.
Immigrant ARC is in full support of this additional funding in immigration legal services, especially to fund such crucial first-in-the-nation programs like New York Immigrant Family Unity Project (NYIFUP), Action NYC, and the Rapid Response Legal Collaborative, I-CARE, CUNY Citizenship NOW!, and many more, and we urge Mayor Adams to get our city out of a state of rapid response and finally start building long-term wraparound immigration legal infrastructure.
In response to New York City Council’s call for an Additional $50M in Funding for Immigration Legal Services, Camille Mackler, Executive Director of Immigrant ARC, made the following statement:
“This funding push by the New York City Council is the result of years of advocacy by legal service providers and immigrant organizers. We are proud to stand beside our allies on the City Council and call for the restoration of funding cuts and an additional $50 million in immigration legal services. It is time for Mayor Adams and his Administration to finally get our City out of this constant state of emergency response and properly build long-term immigration legal infrastructure in coordination with legal service providers and community-based organizations. City budgets are moral documents and it is time we prioritize our immigrant neighbors who have for so long strengthened our communities, businesses, and our City with so little support.”
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Immigrant ARC is a collaborative of over 80 organizations and professional associations providing legal services to New York’s immigrant communities throughout the State. Born out of the legal effort at JFK Airport during the Muslim Travel Ban in 2017, our mission is clear: to mobilize New York State’s legal service providers by facilitating communication and information sharing to better support our immigrant communities; to organize and respond to issues as they arise by coordinating resources and fostering best practices among providers; and to resist and challenge anti-immigrant policies by shining a light on injustices and confronting inequalities faced by our communities in the legal system.