Immigrant ARC Responds to the Official FY25 City Budget
New York, NY - July 1, 2024 - Immigrant ARC and our members tirelessly advocated for crucial programs, and we are grateful to Speaker Adrienne Adams and our champions in City Council for securing an additional $4.4 million for immigration legal services for low-income New Yorkers and standing firm and successfully fighting off threats to funding cuts for these vital immigration services.
In response to the release of the FY25 NY City Budget, Camille Mackler, Executive Director of Immigrant ARC, made the following statement:
“Providing access to legal help is the best way to ensure that immigrants can obtain long-term status, work authorization, and access to resources that will include them in our cultural, civic, and economic life. It is thanks to the tireless advocacy by legal service providers, immigrant organizers, and our allies in City Council that we were able to win this additional $4.4 million in essential immigration services and defend existing programs from the threat of budget cuts. The wins in our FY25 City Budget are a crucial step to supporting our longstanding immigrant communities and ensuring that our newest neighbors do not fall through the cracks of our immigration system. But we continue to urge our City administration to move past emergency response, move towards building long-term immigration legal infrastructure, work in coordination with legal advocates, and ensure that all our immigrant New Yorkers, are receiving the tools they need to flourish alongside our City.
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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.
