NY Leads in Providing Counsel for All Threatened with Deportation

A collaboration of New York legal partners will provide every immigrant in upstate New York  threatened with deportation with a lawyer.  The New York state budget allocated $4 million to the New York Immigrant Family Unity Project to ensure that all NY deportees are represented by counsel.  Studies indicate that only 3% of unrepresented immigrants are successful in avoiding deportation.  Having counsel increases the chances of avoiding deportation by 1000%.

The coalition consists of Vera Institute, Cardozo Law School's Immigration Justice Clinic, the Northern Manhattan Coalition for Immigrant Rights, Make the Road New York and the Center for Popular Democracy.  Other partners in various areas of the state are the Eire County Bar Association Volunteer Lawyer's Project, Brooklyn Defenders Services, the Legal Aid Society, and the Bronx Defenders. Other cities are looking to form comparable partnerships to help immigrant families stay together.

Given New York City's provision of counsel for those being evicted, New York is becoming the national leader in the civil right to counsel movement.