Immigrant ARC Responds to the One-House Budget
New York, NY - March 13, 2024 - Immigrant ARC is grateful to see that the state legislature has allocated some funding in the FY25 NY State Budget for immigration legal services. It is clear our legislators have a sense of how crucial long-term immigration services are to our State. Still, it is not nearly enough to take us out of this cyclical state of emergency response nor to meet the needs of our immigrant communities at this moment. To successfully meet the needs of the moment nothing less than passing the Access to Representation Act (ARA) and including $150 million in funding for immigration legal services in the budget will suffice. This investment should comprise:
$62 million for deportation defense;
$65 million for infrastructure including training, recruitment, retention, & rapid response and;
$23 million for education and integration.
The reality is that legal service providers across New York State have attempted to fill the gap left by our State administration, making herculean efforts to come together to provide rapid response services to meet the needs of our newest neighbors and long-standing immigrant communities. These efforts are only the first step to addressing the current crisis of representation. If we don’t fund long-term immigration legal infrastructure, which allows service providers to hire, educate, and retain experienced attorneys, then countless immigrants will fall through the cracks of our complex immigration system. This investment is not only crucial but long overdue. Studies have shown that having access to legal representation in non-detained cases leads to a 60% increase in positive outcomes, putting immigrant New Yorkers on a fast path to economic stability and growth. It is the only way New York can successfully build long-term immigration legal service infrastructure and allow immigrant New Yorkers to flourish.
In response to the One-House Budget, Camille Mackler, Executive Director of Immigrant ARC, made the following statement:
“New York’s lawmakers have repeatedly referred to the increase in the number of migrants seeking asylum as a ‘crisis’, but the only reason this is a ‘crisis’ is because our government is making it one. Our State administration has chosen to respond to this moment by putting legal service providers in an endless cycle of rapid response instead of funding long-term immigration legal services that will help us not only meet this moment and turn it into an opportunity, not a challenge, but that will also enable to us to respond to future needs as global displacement continues to rise. Providing access to long-term immigration services 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. We urge the New York State legislature to ensure that adequate funding is included in this year’s final budget. ”
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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.