Campaign Action
“Various studies in the past several years have shown that having access to counsel increases an individual’s chance of being granted immigration relief,” Documented reports. The Vera Institute of Justice has said that when detained immigrants are able to access representation, they are up to 10 times more likely to be able to stay in the U.S. Federal immigration officials know this. It’s why they purposefully make it more difficult for detained immigrants to talk to their attorneys.
Under the Access to Representation Act, the state would be mandated “to appoint a lawyer to anyone in New York who has a case before an immigration judge or who has a basis to appeal or request to reopen an old deportation order, and meets income requirements,” NYIC said. State Assembly Member Catalina Cruz and state Sen. Brad Hoylman are sponsors, Documented said.
“The need for immigration legal services has become even more acute during the coronavirus pandemic,” they wrote in a February 2022 CityLimits op-ed. “Since the emergence of COVID-19, over 400,000 additional individuals have been detained, even as public health experts have expressed concern that the cramped and unsanitary conditions in detention facilities pose extreme risks to people forced to live there, the employees who work in these locations, as well as the surrounding communities.”
Immigrants the very next month testified on abusive conditions they faced while detained in New York-area facilities, including one man who said he witnessed six to seven officers physically assaulting an African man, and putting a knee on his neck. Advocates also detailed a pervasive failure by officials to protect immigrants against COVID-19, including putting some on months-long vaccine wait lists. The federal government has already been sued over these long waits.
While lawmakers including then-Sen. Kamala Harris introduced a federal Access to Representation Act in early 2020, it has instead been local and state efforts that have actually gotten off the ground. Just last month, advocates announced the Midwest Immigrant Defenders Alliance, a pilot program they hope can serve as a model for universal legal representation.
”In this legislative session, Albany must take action to equip New Yorkers with more legal resources and the right to representation,” Cruz and Hoylman continued. “This is a generational moment for our state to seize a national leadership role and reimagine justice for immigrant communities by strengthening legal services funding. With this investment, we are promoting family unity, community stability, and an equitable recovery for all of New York.”