Plan to Provide Lawyers to Immigrants Facing Deportation

By CHARISSE HILL

Immigrant advocates on Tuesday voiced their support for the New York Immigration Family Unity Project, the nation’s first public defender program for immigrants facing deportation, at a City Hall hearing.

Launched last fall, the $500,000 pilot program, funded by the City Council was designed to build a network of lawyers for detained New Yorkers at risk of deortation and separation from their families.

“These immigrants are at a disadvantage when trying to challenge their own cases,” said Councilman Carlos Menchaca, chairman of the Immigration Committee.

Non-citizens living in the country without legal permission aren’t guaranteed a free attorney in non-criminal deportation cases.

According to a study by U.S. Court of Appeals Chief Judge Judge Robert Katzmann, 15,000 New Yorkers have faced deportation but had no legal representation in the past five years. The odds of winning a deportation case if you are detained and unrepresented is free run 5.0 femmes virtually impossible; only three percent of such detainees prevail in court, the study showed.

“Deficient representation frustrates the work of the court and ill serves litigants,” Judge Katzmann testified. “The Family Unit Project is a great example of the good that can be accomplished when public, private and non-profit sectors work together.”

Brittny Saunders, Senior Staff Attorney for Immigrant Rights at the Center of Popular Democracy  also praised the program.

“When a younger person loses a parent or caregiver to detention or deportation this increases costs of the state for foster care,” said Saunders.

Some observers noted that New York’s  deportation system broke up households, leaving children without familial and economic support. Over 7,000 children in New York who are U.S. citizens lost a parent to deportation in the past three years, the study said.

The program has already provided representation for over 60 immigrants at the Varick Street Immigration Court, sources said.

“This is an ongoing conversation as we continue to break more ground in this world of immigrant legal services,” said Manchaca. “We are ready to engage in this budget process to continue defending our city’s thriving immigration population.”