New York City Announces Expansion Of Legal Services For Immigrants

Posted by deslava27 |

New York City Announces Expansion Of Legal Services For Immigrants. According to a statement released by the mayor’s website, Bloomberg will implement a staff of eleven new full-time immigration attorneys whose role it will be to “ensure that immigrants… have access to the counsel they need and do not suffer unnecessary immigration consequences as they navigate the legal system” in the courts and at the City’s Family Justice Centers. The program is set to launch by the beginning of 2012.

This program will cost around 1.5 million dollars and while part of the money is covered by donations from the Robin Hood Foundation, it’s not clear how much will be paid by taxpayers.

This is a bold move by Mayor Bloomberg, comprehensive legal services are needed by immigrants, but 11 seems too few, considering the population of NYC alone. Often immigrants fall prey to con-artist who only pose as immigration lawyers who only prey on ill-informed or non-English speaking immigrants who only want to rectify their legal status.

Even if they charged some money or donations for the service I think those seeking counsel will be more than happy to pay knowing that it is something the city is over seeing and would give more confidence to the cities immigrants.