How IARC Began and Where It’s Headed: From #NoBanJFK to Today

On January 28th, 2017, a revolution was born through adversity inside the terminals of JFK Airport. In the coming years of its existence, it would change the lives of immigrants not only in New York City, but across New York State. 

Its name is the Immigrant Advocates Response Collaborative (ImmigrantARC), a non-profit organization founded by immigration attorney Camille Mackler, and it’s the answer immigrants and immigration lawyers alike have been seeking. 

The birth of ImmigrantARC was in response to the Muslim Travel Ban, as hundreds of lawyers gathered inside JFK’s terminals to churn out legal briefs or hold up signs offering help. What turned into a nine day event would be only the beginning of a much greater project.

ImmigrantARC’s mission has been to connect immigration legal service providers so that they can collaborate and share resources with each other and with communities in need. The ability to connect lawyers facing the same challenges is essential, and ImmigrantARC tailors its support based on location to provide them with the best and most relevant information, thus collapsing the geographic boundaries.

One of the highlights of the organization is its ability to connect harder-to-reach communities with legal help, including legal practitioners and resources they may not have previously known was available or had the ability to attain. 

Immigrant ARC has set up shop inside of county jails and exposed injustices against DACA recipients, among others. Testament to the organization’s spirit, when the southern border was moved to upstate New York, they provided help to asylum seekers detained in Albany County jail despite the headlines labeling their work as an uphill battle. 

When then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions derided immigration attorneys’ efforts to help migrants at the borders,  Immigrant ARC members were instead empowered by the sentiment and used it to continue to foster a community environment where information, ideas, and resources are shared with those who need it most. 

For example, ImmigrantARC has members who regularly document system failures in the immigration courts and make sure the rest of the world has access to that information. They have also created a Resiliency Committee, dedicated to preserving the mental health of immigrant communities and the lawyers who work hard to protect their rights. 

What began as a volunteer-led effort by a handful of immigration lawyers has become a community of dedicated, prideful professionals who hold the government accountable for immigrant communities and work tirelessly to protect the rights of each individual. ImmigrantARC shepherded the pivot to crisis management that immigration lawyers were forced into at the hands of the Muslim Travel Ban and has since been a beacon of hope for immigrant communities.

In 2021, ImmigrantARC is dedicating itself to pushing government leaders to follow through with their promises and take action to undo some of the harmful orders put in place by the outgoing Administration. This begins with making sure immigrant voices are heard throughout the policy making processes. Additionally, they are driven to affect change by spreading more resources, providing more training, and further engaging in collaboration with lawyers across upstate New York to make sure they have the same opportunities as lawyers in New York City. 

Above all, ImmigrantARC is a community, and the effort to affect change will undoubtedly be accomplished through the teamwork mentality that has been at the core of this revolutionary organization.