lawyer won
NY immigrants need legal services, healthcare, advocates say
ALBANY — Immigration advocates want more from Gov. Kathy Hochul’s plan to address the rights of people seeking shelter in New York amid an ongoing influx from the southern border and war-torn countries like Afghanistan and Ukraine.
Hochul’s proposal mainly extends funding to existing programs, such as those run by the state‘s Office of New Americans, that provide free legal and employment services for asylum-seekers, and refugee resettlement programs, which partners with nonprofits statewide to house refugees.
Programs that provide employment training and help with job placement will also receive more funding, according to the 278-page briefing book that accompanied Hochul’s State of the State speech on Tuesday.
But her plans didn’t address the major reforms that advocates have championed heading into the legislative session: a statewide right to legal representation for people facing deportation.
The bill backed by the New York Immigration Coalition would make New York the first state in the nation to ensure immigrants have a lawyer when undergoing frequent labyrinthine immigration court proceedings. Because those courts deal with civil cases, people are not guaranteed a lawyer the same way they would be in a criminal court.
“When they go into these proceedings, ordinary folks are up against a government-trained attorney whose sole purpose is to get them out of the country,” said Murad Awawdeh, executive director of the coalition.
According to a 2018 analysis published in the Fordham Law Review, undetained asylum-seeking immigrants with a lawyer won in 74 percent of their cases, while those without a lawyer won only 13 percent of their cases.
State Assemblywoman Catalina Cruz, who represents parts of Queens with high concentrations of undocumented immigrants, is sponsoring what’s been called the Access to Representation Act. “We want to take advantage of immigrant labour, but when it comes to defending