PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Maura Heron, Supervising Attorney of Immigration Intervention Project at Sanctuary for Families
4:02:29
·
3 min
Maura Heron, representing Sanctuary for Families, testified on the impact of shelter time limitations on recent migrants and their asylum cases. She emphasized the challenges faced by survivors of gender-based violence in preparing their asylum cases while dealing with unstable housing situations.
- Sanctuary for Families is the largest provider of comprehensive services for abuse survivors in New York State, handling nearly 400 asylum and 200 removal defense cases last year.
- Constant shelter moves make it difficult for clients to focus on their asylum cases, leading to missed appointments, lost documents, and emotional strain.
- Stable shelter is crucial for adequately preparing court cases, especially in light of anticipated changes in federal immigration policies.
Maura Heron
4:02:29
Good afternoon.
4:02:30
My name is Maura Heron, and I'm a supervising attorney in Sanctuary for Families Immigration Intervention Project, the nation's largest immigration legal service program exclusively for survivors of domestic violence, trafficking, and other forms of gender based violence.
4:02:45
Sanctuary is New York State's largest provider of comprehensive services exclusively for abuse survivors and their children with a broad holistic exclusively for abuse survivors and their children, with a broad holistic program of shelter counseling, legal and economic empowerment services, reaching 8 to 9000 adults and children every year.
4:03:00
The Immigration Intervention Project represents clients in all types of humanitarian immigration relief for which they may be eligible, providing representation, pro se assistance, and advice and referrals to over 25 100 clients annually.
4:03:14
In response to the influx of migrants to the city in recent years, we have expanded our practice to include more asylum and removal work.
4:03:21
Last year, IIP handled nearly 400 asylum and 200 removal defense cases.
4:03:27
We are grateful for the opportunity to testify on the critical topic of the shelter time limitations for recent migrants to New York and the impacts these limitations have on our clients' lives and our ability to represent them in their asylum cases.
4:03:40
Our special thanks to council members Alexa Avilis and Diana Ayala, chairs of the committees on immigration and general welfare, for calling this hearing and for their advocacy on behalf of immigrant survivors.
4:03:54
Representing recent migrants in their asylum cases before the immigration court is demanding of both attorneys and clients.
4:04:00
All of Sanctuary's clients are survivors of gender based violence.
4:04:04
They're often fleeing domestic violence, sexual violence, and homophobic violence in their home countries.
4:04:10
Preparing an asylum case requires that survivors relive these experiences over and over as they explain their stories to us.
4:04:17
This is not only time intensive, but often is emotionally exhausting.
4:04:21
We have intensified our efforts to ensure that our services are trauma informed as our clients repeat these devastating stories to us.
4:04:28
It is very difficult to prepare clients for their cases in court without stable housing.
4:04:34
Clients who have to move shelters every few weeks simply do not have the emotional bandwidth to talk about past traumatic experiences.
4:04:40
They are in constant crisis, and their transient makes it very challenging to stay in touch with them and provide legal representation.
4:04:48
Clients who have to constantly move miss their appointments.
4:04:50
They lose documents that are critical to their claims.
4:04:53
They do not receive extremely important notices in the mail, and they cannot concentrate on preparing their cases when they do not know where they and their children will be sleeping from one day to the next.
4:05:03
We've heard stories already this morning, so I will skip my client's stories, although they'll be in our written testimony.
4:05:10
I wanna emphasize that we are screening people every week who are clearly eligible for asylum.
4:05:16
These clients come to New York because of our reputation as a city that welcomes immigrants, but stable shelter is key to ensuring that these clients have the opportunity to adequately prepare their court cases.
4:05:28
In view of the planned policy changes articulated by the incoming federal administration, immigration cases will become far more challenging, making it all the more critical that the city minimize the range of other obstacles faced by these vulnerable individuals and families.
4:05:44
We thank the committees for shining a light on this important topic, and we are very grateful for the council's efforts to tackle these challenging issues in our city.
4:05:52
Thank you for the opportunity to testify today and for your deep commitment to immigrant abuse survivors and New Yorkers in need, and I'm happy to answer any questions from the perspective of the legal service providers in the city.
