Community Resources for Immigrant NYers

  1. New York State Community Toolkit
  2. Know Your Rights
    1. Immigrants & NY
    2. Know Your Rights Wallet Cards
    3. Know Your Rights Presentations
    4. Know Your Rights Roleplaying Exercise
  3. Asylum Seeker Resources
    1. What is Asylum
    2. Crossing the Border with Canada
  4. NYS Policy Guides
    1. NY HERO Act Guide
  5. Health & Safety Resources
    1. Medicaid and Child Health Plus Postpartum Coverage
    2. Abortions Remain Legal in NYS Resources
    3. Mental Health Guides
    4. I'm Speaking Comic Book
    5. Welcome to Health Care: Health Care Options for Immigrant New Yorkers
  6. Business & Finance Resources
    1. Immigrant Business Guide
    2. Your Money, Your Future! A Basic Guide for Financial Education and Empowerment


New York State Community Toolkit

Our NYS Community Toolkit is an all-in-one resource guide for community members, partners, and allies. It is updated regularly based on changing laws and policies, and connects immigrant New Yorkers with resources across the state.

Download Toolkit



Know Your Rights

Immigrants & NY

NYIC partnered with the Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP) and designer Luiza Dale to create Immigrants & NY, a fold-out poster in English, Spanish, and French. The illustrated poster guides immigrants in New York State on how to avoid immigration scams, protect their families when interacting with ICE, and create a plan for their family in the event of deportation.

Immigrants & NY Poster

Our partnership continued with Immigrants & Upstate NY, a companion piece that focuses on the upstate regional context. The tri-fold poster educates immigrants on how to interact with Border Patrol and local law enforcement, and ways to reduce the risk from traffic stops.

Immigrants & Upstate NY Poster

Know Your Rights Wallet Cards

Know Your Rights wallet cards are available in Spanish, French, Chinese (Simplified), and Arabic.

Download KYR Wallet Cards

Know Your Rights Presentations

Our Know Your Rights slide decks are available in multiple languages for community groups to use and amend for their facilitation of Know Your Rights trainings. Topics include Public Health updates, Federal Immigration updates, New York State updates, and the Immigration System and Your Rights.

This resource is available in languages commonly spoken in the NYC and Western NY regions. The English version of these presentations is not available.

New York City:
Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Creole, French, Korean, Yoruba, Spanish

Western New York:
Arabic, Bengali, Burmese, Creole, French, Karen, Nepali, Somali, Spanish

Please note that we are not updating any slide decks, which were developed March 2022. We recommend that your team refers to the New York State Community Toolkit for the most recent updates to amend the content.

To request a free Know Your Rights workshop (in English, Spanish, or Chinese) for your organization or community group, please email KYR@nyic.org.

Know Your Rights Roleplaying Exercise

This resource provides sample dialogue to roleplay an interaction with ICE on the street. The goal is to help community members practice key phrases they can use when interacting with ICE to assert their rights. The NYIC can partner with community organizations to provide additional trainings to prepare for potential ICE interactions in the home and at a traffic stop. Please reach out to kyr@nyic.org to request a training.


Asylum Seeker Resources

What Is Asylum? Poster

What is asylum? is a trilingual fold-out poster in English, Spanish, and French, created by CUP with The Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture (PSOT) and design studio Bardo Industries. The illustrated poster guides asylum seekers— many of whom have limited English and literacy skills— step-by-step through the difficult process of receiving asylum, and provides information about other resources they can turn to for assistance.

Download Poster

Crossing the Border with Canada

As of March 25, 2023, unofficial border crossings between the U.S. and Canada (including Roxham Road near Plattsburgh in upstate New York) have closed to migrants seeking to cross into Canada to make an asylum claim there. This one-pager provides information and resources to asylum seekers affected by this change.


NYS Policy Guides

NY HERO Act Guide

The NY HERO Act Guide is a guide for New Yorkers to be aware of what the implementation of the NY HERO Act means for them. It contains information on who is covered, what employers must do, and what employees’ rights are if their employer is not implementing the required protocols. This resource is available in English, Spanish, French, Somali, Nepali, Arabic, Burmese, Bengali, Chinese, and Karen.

Download Guide


Health & Safety Resources

Medicaid and Child Health Plus Postpartum Coverage

As part of the advocacy successes of the NYIC’s Coverage4All campaign, pregnant women and low-income children who are pregnant and enrolled in either Medicaid and/or Child Health Plus are now eligible to receive up to twelve months of postpartum coverage, regardless of immigration status or how the pregnancy ended. This one-pager outlines what this means for individuals and families, who is eligible, and how to enroll.

Abortions Remain Legal in NYS Resources

Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court on June 24, 2022. The legality of abortion is now under individual states’ decisions. However, abortion remains legal in New York State, and is accessible to everyone including undocumented immigrants and visitors from out of state. This resource includes resources for New York State residents and visitors from out of state seeking reproductive health services and support.

Mental Health Guides

The NYIC's Mental Health Guide walks through what to do and whom to contact to identify the right level of care and service needed, including community care. This guide was developed with a particular focus on the Asian American and Pacific Islander community, in partnership with Korean Community Services. This work was sponsored and funded by the New York City Council and the Department of Youth and Community Development.

I'm Speaking Comic Book

I'm Speaking is an AAPI-centered comic book produced by the New York Immigration Coalition in partnership with Yuna Youn (Korean Community Services) and illustrator Anusha Morshed. This comic book centers the immigrant child experience with a focus on first-generation and second-generation children of immigrants and is intended for ages 14+. While navigating issues such as AAPI hate and cultural dynamics, it amplifies the power of community and mental support. This work was sponsored and funded by the New York City Council and the Department of Youth and Community Development.

Download Comic Book

Welcome to Health Care: Health Care Options for Immigrant New Yorkers

Welcome to Healthcare tackles the complex nature of immigrant eligibility for health coverage and provides information that immigrant New Yorkers need to access health services and receive language and financial assistance. The poster explains eligibility rules for different types of health care coverage based on immigration status, and assures immigrants that health care providers will not report their patients’ status to Immigration and Customs Enforcement or US Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Download Poster

Business & Finance Resources

Immigrant Business Guide

Immigrant entrepreneurship is the backbone of this country’s economy. In New York State, immigrant business owners account for 33.8% of all self-employed residents, contributing $7.2 billion in business income. While immigrants are more than twice as likely as U.S.-born citizens to start a business, there are few resources specifically dedicated to assisting immigrant business owners.

The Immigrant Business Guide includes information to help you decide which type of business structure is right for you, what the requirements are for forming your business and some of the fees and taxes to expect so that you can stay open for business.

Learn More

Your Money, Your Future! A Basic Guide for Financial Education and Empowerment

Your Money, Your Future: A Basic Guide for Financial Education and Empowerment provides a basic overview of the American financial system with the aim to educate and better inform immigrant communities. The guide provides readers with information they need to improve their personal finances including basic financial management skills, a list of reliable service providers in New York, and tips on avoiding immigrant-targeting scams.

Learn More