Immigrant ARC Statement on New York State Legislature One-House Budget Resolutions

Albany, NY; March 15, 2022 - With both the New York State Assembly and Senates having released their one-house budget resolutions for FY 2023, Immigrant ARC (I-ARC) issued the following statement on the proposals, which include modest increases for funding for immigrant legal services. 

Camille Mackler, Executive Director, Immigrant ARC: 

Senate Majority Leader Andrea Steward-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Hestie have released their one-house budget proposals. While we commend their decision to increase immigration legal services funding, which has remained stagnant since 2017, the proposed funding is still not sufficient to address the needs of immigrant New Yorkers. The backlog in immigration courts created by court closures during the pandemic, increased enforcement during the last administration, and the needs created by new migration crises around the world cannot be addressed without a significant increase for immigration legal services. We urge Governor Hochul and the New York State Legislature to increase funding for immigration legal services to $15.3 million to enable providers to meet critical, ongoing needs in their communities while allowing them to meaningfully grow capacity in underserved communities. 

In addition to ensuring an increase in funding for immigration legal services, we continue to urge  New York State to designate $3 million in economic development funding for legal services for resettle Afghans so that our new neighbors may both contribute to the cultural richness of New York State as well as its economic recovery as we move out of the pandemic. 

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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.