Biometric Collection by USCIS Proposed Rule

The Proposed Rules call for the expansion of collection and use of biometric data in immigration cases, including concerning methods such as facial recognition. The Rules would unnecessarily burden people applying for most immigration benefits. The result will undoubtedly be an even greater backlog of family-based visa petitions. It would be an unnecessary infringement upon the privacy rights of immigrants and their families, already treated as second class citizens. It is also unclear where and how the invasive data collection will be stored and shared. CLA strongly opposes the expansion of biometric data collection. Read our full comment.

Asylum Proposed Rule Changes

Asylum is a safety net for the guaranteed protection of fundamental human liberty, and freedom from inhumane treatment for those who cannot be guaranteed such in their home country. The Administration seeks to change existing asylum rules, changes which would undermine the U.S. responsibility to provide humanitarian safeguards. Read our full comment.

2020 Census

An accurate Census count is imperative to maintaining justice in legislation. Many public assistance programs, such as Medicaid, Section 8 Housing, SNAP and more rely on Census data for adequate funding. CLA rejected--and still rejects, on principle--the Trump Administration’s proposal to include a question asking one’s citizenship status on the 2020 Census. In addition, CLA supported increased funding for community-based outreach and education involving New York State’s participation in the Census. CLA is proud to be a member organization of New York Counts 2020, an initiative that leads the way in Census advocacy, education and outreach.

On June 27, the case involving the citizenship Census question was remanded to a lower court by the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS). SCOTUS acknowledged that the addition of a citizenship question to the Census by Commerce was not done so with legitimate justification. Because of this ruling, it is VERY UNLIKELY that there will be a citizenship question on the 2020 Census. This is a major victory for all Americans, especially New Yorkers, whose large population of immigrants threatened lower participation rates in the 2020 Census, had a citizenship question been included. 

Regardless of SCOTUS’ decision on the citizenship question, it is absolutely imperative that all New Yorkers complete the 2020 Census. Census data is rigidly protected and is not accessible by other government agencies, meaning that no one will be implicated due to their responses on the Census.

Education and outreach surrounding the 2020 Census is paramount in ensuring that everyone gets counted. CLA supported the proposal to include $40 million for Census outreach in the New York State budget, which was approved by Governor Cuomo in April.

Public Charge

In October 2018, the Trump Administration proposed a new rule that will impact a legal immigrant’s ability to renew their legal status or apply for lawful residency. The rule change will be based on a legal immigrant’s use of government-provided services like Medicaid, Section 8 Housing subsidies and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), among other things.

As of January 27, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court lifted the preliminary injunction that prevented the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) public charge rule from taking effect. This technically means that the government can start implementing the changes to the rule, the (DHS) has announced that the rule will go into effect on February 24, 2020. If you have questions about your status pertaining to the public charge rule change, you should contact an attorney at CLA for information. Every situation is different, and you should know of the risks and benefits of making decisions that could impact the health and wellness of your family. 

Community Legal Advocates strongly opposes this Administration’s efforts to expand the ‘public charge’ rule, part of its ongoing effort to demonize immigrants and their families. We are extremely disappointed that the Supreme Court has allowed this draconian rule to go into effect. In our work with immigrant families on LI, we see firsthand that the expansion of the public charge rule puts families at risk and is already forcing people to choose between receiving essential benefits for food, health care and housing, and their future status in the U.S. The decision is wrong and the proposed expanded rule should be condemned and rejected. Most recently, on January 28, 2020 CLA’s Executive Director, Ann Dibble, along with fellow advocates and legal services throughout the city, had spoken out in a press conference addressing their concerns and implications of the proposed rule for immigrants and their families.

To reiterate: if you have concerns about your specific situation, you should contact an attorney at CLA with any questions. This public charge rule is complex and will not apply uniformly to all people. 

CLA vehemently opposes the rule change, now and when it was first proposed. We will fight to ensure that our clients have the most current and accurate information surrounding public charge and will provide advice and counsel to those who need it.

Read more about the public charge rule change by clicking here and here.

Increased Funding for Legal Services & Access to Representation Act

CLA supports increased funding of the Liberty Defense Project, a project that provides free legal consultations and screenings, representation for immigrants facing deportation, application filing for people seeking adjustment of citizenship status and more. The Liberty Defense Project funds organizations that provide these types of imperative services, so continued—and additional—funding is essential.

Per policy recommendations from the New York Immigration Coalition, CLA also advocates that:

• The budget for the Office of New Americans is increased to $10M

• Liberty Defense Project funding is doubled to $20M

• $1M is invested in a Statewide ICE Response Crisis Hotline

Legal services for immigrants, especially outside of New York City, are often expensive and hard to find. Increased funding of the Liberty Defense Project will help to address this problem and make legal services more accessible to everyone—which is the primary goal of CLA.

Updated as of February 13, 2020:

CLA signed onto a letter asking Speaker Heastie and Senate Leader Stewart Cousins to include legal services funding in the budget and to support the Access to Representation Act.

The state needs to put in funding for legal services because immigrants would otherwise have to navigate the system alone, even if facing deportation.  In New York, arrests by ICE and CBP have gone up significantly year-to-year and deportation orders entered by immigration judges in New York's court are up by 80%.  With legal services funding not being included in the Governor's budget year-to-year, the ability of groups to hire and retain staff has gotten more difficult with the uncertainty of whether they will continue to have access to funding.  Currently funded programs are already at capacity and an increase in the budget will allow for programs to take on more cases and bring in new organizations and community based organizations into state-funded legal services program—which will help organizations like CLA take-on more cases to help clients in need of assistance.

The Access to Representation Act is a bill introduced in January 15, 2020 to create a right to counsel under New York State to provide a lawyer to everyone facing deportation in NY and fund them year-to-year. Currently there is no actual right to a lawyer for immigration proceedings and so, if a client can't find a lawyer and non-profits are at capacity, then the client would have to represent themselves.  Statistically 78% of non-detained and 32% of detained immigrants win their cases with lawyer, compared to 15% and 4%  respectively without a lawyer-- leaving many unjust deportation orders.  Read the full bill here.

Temporary Protected Status for Citizens of Venezuela

Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, has been automatically extended until January of 2020. More than 250,000 immigrants--from El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua and Sudan--will benefit from this extension. It’s exciting news for citizens of these four countries.

CLA advocates for TPS for citizens of El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua and Sudan. We also support the recent proposal to expand TPS to Venezuelan nationals, a move that is being considered in high-ranking levels of the White House.

Venezuela is experiencing an unprecedented economic crisis that’s resulted in extraordinarily high levels of inflation, widespread starvation and a myriad of human rights violations--some of which were brought on by the Venezuelan government. Under federally-defined criteria from the United States, CLA believes that Venezuela, in its current state, qualifies as a country whose conditions “temporarily prevent the country’s nationals from returning safely” and a country that is “unable to handle the return of its nationals adequately.” For this reason, CLA is proud to have joined more than 200 organizations in sending a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen, advocating that she expand TPS to Venezuelan nationals. Read the full letter here.

Additionally, CLA hosted multiple informational workshops over the past year to educate community members about TPS and other pertinent issues. We look forward to continuing these educational events so that the community can have up-to-date information about their current and future legal statuses, now and beyond January 2020.