TESTIMONY
Melissa Chua on Budget Cuts Affecting Immigration Legal Assistance
4:34:20
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3 min
Melissa Chua, Co-Director of the Immigration Protection Unit at the New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG), discusses how proposed budget cuts will significantly impact legal assistance for immigrants.
- Highlights NYLAG's efforts to stretch existing services for newly arrived immigrants and the creation of new programs.
- Discusses the significance of ongoing legal services and advocacy for winning asylum and maintaining work authorization.
- Points out the severe impact of proposed budget cuts on critical legal aid programs like the ProSate Plus project and the Action NYC initiative.
- Urges the city to continue and increase investments in legal aid and community-based organizations that support immigrants.
Melissa Chua
4:34:20
Thank you.
4:34:21
Chair of yours, council members, and staff.
4:34:23
Thank you, and good afternoon.
4:34:25
Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today about the preliminary budget.
4:34:29
For next year.
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My name is Melissa Chula, and I am the co director of the immigrant protection unit at the New York Legal Assistance Group, NIWC.
4:34:38
I do not need to reemphasize this committee the numbers of new New Yorkers that have arrived since April 2022.
4:34:45
At Nylon, we have stretched our existing services to meet the needs of the new of newly arrived immigrants and have alongside with our community based organizations on the ground, created new and dynamic programming to provide quality services to as many people as possible.
4:35:03
For example, as my colleague at Unlocal has discussed, NILEG along with our partners have served thousands of individuals through the ProSate Plus project and we are providing highly complex time sensitive services to newly arrived immigrants who are already post deportation order.
4:35:22
To the rapid response legal collaborative.
4:35:26
While the city has invested heavily in an infrastructure aimed solely at providing pro se assist sense.
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The initial application for assistance or for asylum is merely the first step to securing long term stability and protection for families.
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The process of winning asylum and maintaining work authorization is a long and complex one that requires assistance and intervention along the way.
4:35:50
Programs like the president plus project and the full representation offered to the immigrant opportunities initiative are crucial for ensuring that families do not only apply but win asylum.
4:36:03
This is necessary for ensuring that individuals maintain their ability to work and gain stability.
4:36:08
Similarly, Nailik and a rapid response legal collaborative continue to receive referrals as has been discussed many directly from the city's asylum seekers center for individuals who've been ordered or removed through no fault of their own or after prosay proceedings that are legally deficient and void of new process.
4:36:26
Notwithstanding this programs like the Rapid Response Legal Collaborative face continuing cuts, even as a need for our services has increased dramatically.
4:36:36
Our programming existing serving existing New Yorkers similarly faces dire cuts.
4:36:43
For example, the proposed RFP for action NYC would end lilacs legal services in HMH Hospitals through the city.
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Cutting off services to thousands of New Yorkers.
4:36:53
In fact, this is one of the very programs cited by Moyer earlier as one of the few nonprofit serving children.
4:37:00
The proposed RFP for action NYC would also endanger NILEC's ability to provide wide ranging legal services some of the most underserved and long residing immigrant communities in New York City.
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Having worked with immigrants in New York city for many years.
4:37:16
We encourage the city to to continue and increase investment in legal services and community based organizations that have the expertise to provide long term effective