Immigrant ARC Releases Justice for All Report
Last week, we released our latest report: “Justice For All: Challenges and Opportunities in Ensuring Access to Counsel for Immigrant New Yorkers.”
The report, researched and written by Spencer Hayes and Lisbeth Valdez as part of their Capstone projects for the University at Albany, is based on dozens of quantitative and qualitative surveys and interviews of I-ARC’s members on their experiences providing legal services to New York’s immigrant communities throughout the state. For the first time, it includes salary ranges and other data critical to understanding the current state of the immigration legal services field so that we can continue to strengthen and grow New York immigrants’ access to counsel. Importantly, it also reveals the devastating impact that anti-immigrant policies as well as the COVID Pandemic have had on the workforce’s morale and its high rate of burnout.
Key Findings:
Out of 27 organizations responding, 9 had a waitlist, an average of 34.6%. For those with a waitlist, cases often wait between 3 months and a year.
On average organizations conduct almost 79 consultations per month and have on average 852 cases per year.
Supervisors, on average, have 6 individuals reporting to them. Supervisors, also, personally handle an average of 21-30 cases per year.
We asked organizations’ legal representatives and Department of Justice Accredited Representatives to report their experience levels. On average 43.3% of attorneys/accredited representatives have 0-5 years of immigration law experience, 31.7% reported 5-10 years, and 23.5% have over 10 years. For attorneys within the organizations who do not have immigration experience and/or accredited DOJ representatives, on average, organizations recorded 39.2% have 0-5 years of experience, 33.5% have 5-10 years, and 21.1% have greater than 10 years.
When asked if their organization would like to receive greater support through workshops and other mechanisms to address vicarious trauma and resiliency, about 66% reported they would.
Recommendations:
Provide workshops and increase access to support meant to address vicarious trauma through building self-awareness of the impact of working with trauma, practicing vicarious resilience, developing a personalized plan, and discuss burnout and compassion fatigue. Change the practice of tying grant funding to the number of people served so that supervisors can oversee and train their staff without being required to carry their caseload.
Provide skills-based training and training designed to manage stress by teaching time management, conflict resolution, and emotional intelligence, and learn how to spot the signs of compassion fatigue.
Call upon government officials to make providing and expanding access to counsel a policy priority
As we get ready for the start of the New York State legislative session next month, this report, and other work by I-ARC members, will be crucial in highlighting the impact access to counsel has on the well-being of New York’s immigrant communities, and the gaps we still need to fill to ensure justice for all.
