NYIC and Partners Announce Free Legal Services for DACA

September 15th, 2017

September 25th Statewide Day of Action

Today, The New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC) together with Immigrant Justice Corps, the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs (MOIA), the Community Justice Clinic at the UB School of Law, and the New York City Council announced the Immigrant Advocates Response Collaborative (Immigrant ARC) legal defense action plan for Deferred Action of Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients.

The plan was developed in response to the Trump administration’s decision to phase out DACA, which protects over 50,000 New Yorkers, who were brought to the United States as children, from deportation. Based on the guidelines released by the Administration an estimated 10,000 New Yorkers are eligible for renewal if they file by October 5th. FREE legal services will be available state-wide on a September 25h Day of Action. There are 41 participating organizations hosting at least 28 events and counting.

“We cannot wait for D.C. to fix DACA, while Trump toys with 50,000 New Yorkers one tweet at a time, but we can make sure that they have everything they need to fight back. This is our New York, and we will protect the people who truly make America great,” said Steven Choi, Executive Director of the New York Immigration Coalition. On Wednesday, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi announced an agreement with President Trump over the future of DACA in exchange for more border security. Although Trump tweeted supportively the White House quickly refuted those claims, putting DACA’s fate back in flux.

“Immigrant Justice Corps will be providing assistance with DACA renewals in all five boroughs on the DACA Day of Action,” said Jojo Annobil, Executive Director of Immigrant Justice Corps. “We will continue to fight for permanent relief for those with DACA and their families, but in the meanwhile, it is essential that everyone who is eligible to renew gets the high quality legal help they need before the October 5 deadline.” “Upstate New York is home to many immigrants, including many DACA recipients. Yet, upstate suffers from a dearth of immigration legal services compared to NYC,” said Nicole Hallett, Director of the Community Justice Clinic at the UB School of Law. “The next month will be a scramble to make sure every eligible DACA recipient can file a renewal. We can use all the help we can get.”

“New York City's immigrant communities are strong, unified, and ready to defend our DACA-mented and undocumented youth, with every tool at our disposal. As the City Council's Immigration Committee Chair, and the representative of an immigrant district, I condemn the Trump administration's harmful termination of the DACA program. I call on the United States Congress to take decisive action protecting all DACA-registered and -eligible immigrants. This is a time for all New Yorkers to stand for justice and recognize the value DREAMers and their families bring to our City and nation,” said City Council Member and Chair of the Immigration Committee, Carlos Menchaca.

“In New York, we have 42,000 DACA recipients that are part of the fabric of our State. The recent federal decision to end DACA has put almost a million people on the verge of being denied the opportunity to give our society the possibility of building a better future. These DACA recipients are already contributing to our society. New York's example is the exact opposite of this harsh decision. We believe in diversity. We believe in welcoming people from all over the globe because we're not one religion, we're not one race - we're one idea. If you come here and you work with us, you join the family of New York. E pluribus unum, out of many, one. There are many questions to be answered and the New York State Office for New Americans (ONA) has a team of immigration experts ready to offer legal assistance. We stand ready to help Dreamers and all immigrants navigate the confusing legal immigration system. For anyone needing help, please contact the ONA hotline at 1-800-566-7636,” said New York Secretary of State Rossana Rosado.

“We will continue tireless advocacy in NYC and across the country to keep Dreamers, especially the 30,000 who know New York City as their home, here where they belong,” said Acting Commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs Bitta Mostofi. “Congress must act immediately to pass the DREAM Act, and end the uncertainty upending the lives of 800,000 Dreamers nationwide. While we are forced to grapple with the Trump Administration’s mass deportation machine and its coldhearted and wrongheaded move to end DACA, the City is doing everything in our power to protect immigrant New Yorkers, including convening, coordinating, and funding providers across the five boroughs to connect Dreamers with free, confidential legal support.” See below for full list of sponsors and participants, as well as location, time and date of free legal clinics:

Sponsor:

Immigrant Advocates Response Collaborative (I-ARC)

Participants:

African Services Committee (Immigrant Community Law Center)

American Immigration Lawyers Association - New York Chapter

Association of Pro Bono Counsel

Bronx Legal Services

Bronx Defenders

Bronx Immigration Partnership

BronxWorks

Brooklyn Defender Services

Central American Legal Assistance (CALA)

CAMBA

CARACEN

Caracol Language Coop

Catholic Charities Community Services, Archdiocese of New York

City Bar Justice Center

Community Justice Clinic, University Of Buffalo School of Law

CUNY Citizenship NOW!

Dechert LLP

Immigrant Defense Project

Immigrant Justice Corps

Journey’s End Refugee Services, Inc.

The Legal Aid Society

Legal Aid Society of Rochester

Lutheran Social Services of New York

Make the Road NY

Masa

Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University

Mayor's Office to Combat Domestic Violence

MinKwon Center for Community Action

New York Law School Asylum Clinic

New York Immigration Coalition

NYC Mayor’s Office for Immigrant Affairs

New York State Bar Association

Sanctuary for Families

Sauti Yetu Center for African Women & Families

South Bronx United

The Door

Violence Intervention Program

Volunteers Lawyers Project of Onondaga County

Volunteers of Legal Service

UnLocal, Inc.

LIST OF EVENTS

*unless otherwise noted all events are taking place on the 25th of September

BROOKLYN

Brooklyn Defender Services 9AM - 6PM in-office appointments Closed for Intake

Central American Legal Assistance (CALA) 9AM - 5PM in-office appointments

Closed for Intake

CAMBA 9AM - 5PM in-office Appointments Call 718-940-6311 for appointments

Immigrant Justice Corps

10AM - 6PM in-office appointments Brooklyn Public Library, 10 Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn NY 11238

Call 646-690-0472 for appointments

BRONX

Bronx Immigration Partnership (Sauti Yetu Center for African Women & Families; South Bronx United; Caracol Language Coop; Violence Intervention Program; Bronx Legal Services; Bronx Defenders; Masa)

Clinic 5PM - 9PM on 9/27 349 East 149th Street, 10th Floor, Bronx, NY 10451

Walk-ins / Email jbaez@lsnyc.org / Call/text 718-928-3696

BronxWorks & Bronx Defenders Walk-in Clinic 10AM - 4PM 1130 Grand Concourse, Bronx, New York 10456

City Bar Justice Center

Legal clinic, details to follow

Immigrant Justice Corps

10AM - 6PM in-office appointments 2759 Webster Ave, Bronx NY 10458 Call 646-690-0472 for appointments

MANHATTAN

African Services Committee - Immigrant Community Law Center

Clinic (by appointment) 10am - 6pm

For appointments call (212) 222-3882 ext. 2163 or (212) 222-3882 ext. 2156, or

Email help@immigrantcommunitylaw.org

American Immigration Lawyers Association - NY Chapter

Clinic 3PM - 9PM

Appointment contact information TBD

Catholic Charities Community Services, Archdiocese of New York

DACA Day of Action Clinic 9AM - 4PM

Full Immigration Screenings and DACA Renewal Assistance

call 347-557-8453 or email CatholicCharitiesDOA@gmail.com

CUNY Citizenship NOW! (event Sept. 23rd)

Clinic at John Jay College

Call 646-664-9400 for appointments

The Door

Immigration screenings and Know Your Rights presentations, 4PM -7PM

*For youth aged 12-24*

Renewal applications by appointment only

For appointments call our administrative assistant Erika Alfaro at 212-941-9090 ext. 3280

Immigrant Justice Corps, APBCo, Dechert LLP

3PM - 9PM in-office appointments 1095 6th Ave, New York, NY 10036 Call 646-690-0472 for appointments

Lutheran Social Services of New York

Closed for DACA renewal appointments

The Legal Aid Society DACA renewal assistance For all appointments, email us at dream@legal-aid.org

New York Law School Asylum Clinic

By Appointment Only. Legal Screenings and assistance with DACA renewals appointments from 10AM - 3PM.

Email or call Prof. Claire R. Thomas to schedule appointment 212-431-2320 or

claire.thomas@nyls.edu

Sanctuary for Families

DACA renewal assistance (multiple locations, call for details)

Call 311 or 1-800-566-7636

UnLocal, Inc.

In-office appointments and DACA renewal clinic 9AM - 6PM

Call 646-216-8210 for appointments

Volunteers of Legal Service

DACA renewal appointments 10AM - 6PM

Call 347-521-5722 for appointments

QUEENS

Make the Road New York (event Sept. 23rd)

Walk-in all day workshop & renewal clinic 10AM - 4PM

Come for one of 3 sessions starting at 10am, 12pm, and 2pm

92-10 Roosevelt Ave Jackson Heights, NY

MinKwon Center for Community Action

In-office DACA renewal appointments 11 am - 5 pm

136-19 41st Ave. 3rd Floor, Flushing, NY 11355

Call 718-460-5600 for appointments

STATEN ISLAND

Immigrant Justice Corps

10AM - 6PM in-office appointments El Centro, 1546 Castleton Ave, Staten Island NY 10302

Call 646-690-0472 for appointments

LONG ISLAND

CARECEN

In-office appointments

Call 516-489-8330 in Nassau and 631-273-8721 in Suffolk for an appointment

Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University

DACA clinic for Nassau Community College Students

BUFFALO

Community Justice Clinic at Buffalo School of Law

Free DACA Renewal Clinic 9AM - 2PM

Call 716-645-2167 or email law-cjc@buffalo.edu

Journey’s End Refugee Services, Inc.

Individual DACA consultations

For appointments call ONA Legal Counsel Irene Rekhviashvili at (917) 502-9522

SYRACUSE

Volunteers Lawyers Project of Onondaga County (Event Sept. 24th)

Clinic, 11AM - 2PM

221 South Warren Street, Syracuse

For appointments contact Herve Comeau, Immigration Pro Bono Coordinator at 315-579-0178 or hcomeau@onvlp.org

Background

Immigrant ARC is a collaborative of over 60 legal service providers, bar associations, and nonprofits working on legal access for immigrants. Forming last February, the collaborative aims to help immigrants during the Trump administration.

President’s decision to end DACA comes after nine states led by Texas threatened to sue the Trump Administration unless it moved to end the program by Tuesday. A coalition of legal experts, business leaders, elected officials and advocacy groups called on the Trump administration to uphold the program. DACA allowed individuals who were brought to the U.S. as children or teens before mid-2007 to apply for protection from deportation and work permits if they met certain requirements. Beneficiaries had to be under the age of 16 upon entering the country; no older than 31 as of June 15, 2012; lived continuously in the U.S. since mid-2007; be enrolled in high school or college, already have a diploma or degree, have a GED certificate or be an honorably discharged veteran of the U.S. military; and have no felony criminal convictions, significant misdemeanor convictions, no more than three other misdemeanor convictions or otherwise pose a threat to national security or public safety. If a person’s DACA is set to expire between September 5, 2017 and March 5, 2018, s/he has until October 5th, 2017 to file for renewal.[1]

[1] https://www.uscis.gov/daca2017

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The New York Immigration Coalition is an umbrella policy and advocacy organization for nearly 200 groups in New York State that work with immigrants and refugees.The NYIC aims to achieve a fairer and more just society that values the contributions of immigrants and extends opportunity to all by promoting immigrants’ full civic participation, fostering their leadership, and providing a unified voice and a vehicle for collective action for New York’s diverse immigrant communities.