Immigrant Rights

We envision a transformative approach to justice that upholds human dignity by prioritizing community-based initiatives and support networks over punitive measures. Our goal is to end cycles of punishment and violence against Black and brown communities and to build trust between immigrant communities and state agencies to enhance safety and privacy. Ultimately, we imagine a society where individuals are empowered to collectively address conflicts and harms, fostering a safer and more equitable environment for all. To achieve this, we must end state support for detention, deportation, and mass incarceration; end state violence against Black and brown people; and ensure that everyone has the right to meaningful due process.

We drive work at the municipal, state, and federal levels to 

  • Counter anti-immigrant policies,
  • Fight against out-of-control immigrant enforcement agencies, 
  • Strengthen immigrants’ fundamental civil rights,
  • Ensure access to counsel and expansions of status, and
  • End collusion between federal and local law enforcement.

Through its statewide work, the NYIC Immigrant Rights Policy team calls on New York State to do the following:

  • Ensure all immigrants facing deportation have the right to an attorney,
  • Cease over-policing and unconstitutional stops by law enforcement, and
  • Prohibit all state and local government employees from collaborating with federal immigration authorities to facilitate immigration-related arrests and detention.

Coalitions and Campaigns:

  • Campaign for Access to Representation and Equity: Anchored by the NYIC, the Vera Institute, and I-ARC, the campaign fights to ensure that New York State expands funding for critical immigration legal representation services and to pass the Access to Representation Act. The bill will guarantee access to lawyers for immigrants at risk of deportation in New York.
  • New York for All: The New York for All Act addresses this by broadly prohibiting state and local officers from enforcing federal immigration laws, funneling people into ICE custody, and sharing sensitive information with federal immigration authorities. The bill prohibits ICE and CBP from entering non-public areas of state and local property without a judicial warrant.
  • Dignity Not Detention: The New York Dignity Not Detention Act gets New York out of the business of immigration detention. When immigrants and communities can live in dignity and freedom, we’ll create a more welcoming state for all who call New York home.
  • Justice Roadmap: The Roadmap began as a group of advocates joining forces to push interconnected legislative action in our state to address the criminalization of immigrants and Black and brown communities. United as a platform, the group shines light on the way our criminal and immigration legal systems interplay to separate, isolate, expel, and cage people. The Roadmap is a guide for New York’s elected officials to address some of the worst harms caused by these systems.
  • ICE Out of NYC!: ICE Out! NYC is a campaign to restrict New York City from collaborating with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the detention and deportation of our communities.
  • Immigrant Advocates Response Collaborative (I-ARC): I-ARC is a coalition of immigration legal advocates that works on increasing access to justice and access to counsel for all immigrant New Yorkers.

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