NEW: Be Prepared! A "Know Your Rights" Guide for Immigrants in NYC
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Additional resources: Fund for Modern Courts (outside link)
If you have questions, or need legal assistance in an immigration matter, please call our hotline at 917-661-4500.
At LSNYC, we stand for a city and country that welcomes and values people from all nations and all religions. We stand against Islamophobia and hate. We are working closely with our community partners and allies to try to alleviate fear and hardship, ensure that immigrants are aware of their rights, and represent many to help keep and bring their families together.
Our immigration attorneys in all five boroughs have redoubled their efforts on behalf of immigrant New Yorkers, opening 70% more cases this January than they did one year ago. In addition, the pro bono immigration campaign we launched immediately after the election has continued to expand in response to recent events. Three hundred pro bono attorneys, from more than 20 large law firms and corporations, are now partnering with LSNYC to represent hundreds of low-income immigrants.
LSNYC’s Immigrants’ Rights Project offers representation in a variety of matters, including naturalization applications, work authorization, adjustment of status, replacement of permanent residence cards, alien relative petitions, immigrant visa processing and removal proceedings. LSNYC attorneys also provide domestic violence immigration-related services, including VAWA self-petitions, battered spouse waivers and U-visa applications. Our services are holistic, providing immigrants with housing, public benefits and language assistance. We work closely with clients and community partners to ensure immigrants have a successful pathway to citizenship.
Making Dreams a Reality: Support for Immigrant Students: With support from the New York State Assembly Office of the Speaker, in 2012 LSNYC launched Community College CONNECT, a citywide project to support NYC’s low-income immigrant community college students through legal advice, advocacy and education. LSNYC advocates help students complete their education by providing information and advocacy to overcome obstacles that can derail students’ success including:
- threats of homelessness from unlawful evictions or foreclosure
- physical, emotional, legal and economic hardships created by domestic violence
- financial crises created by predatory student and consumer debt scammers
The LSNYC Education Rights Project conducts community training and special projects with immigrant students in areas such as school discipline, mental health services and special education. Through LSNYC’s holistic, connected services and advocacy, we work closely with immigrant communities to develop individual plans for uninterrupted education and success.
Language Rights are Civil Rights: The LSNYC Language Access Project challenges the language barriers that LEP clients face in getting benefits, services and access to justice. We are engaged in litigation challenging the failure of various city agencies to provide legally required language access, and work with community partners to engage federal, state and local agencies to broaden language rights for all of NYC’s diverse immigrant communities.
In December 2016, we released a report entitled Interpreting Justice: Language Access in the New York Courts. The report surveyed 87 lawyers providing civil legal services to low-income New Yorkers in order to draw findings from their experiences dealing with language access issues in the courts. In addition to offering new data on the prevalence of language access issues, the report also provides recommendations for how courts can best support LEP litigants and offers first-person accounts from LEP litigants who have encountered difficulties obtaining interpreters for court proceedings. View the report here.
Our Legal Assistance Hotline is open Monday through Friday from 9:30am to 4pm. Call 917-661-4500 to speak to an intake officer in any language.