Opinion: It’s Time For NY to Defend Immigrant Rights—Now More Than Ever

“As a result of this order, 26,000 children nationwide will lose their legal counsel overnight, including thousands in New York. It is on us as a state and a city to codify programs that are resistant to federal attacks.”

In New York State immigration courts, children as young as 2 years old are expected to go up against trained government attorneys to explain, without the help of their own lawyer, why they are eligible for immigration relief. These children are often not even tall enough to see over the table, and unsurprisingly, without a lawyer, unaccompanied children have less than a 15 percent chance of winning their case in immigration court.

It doesn’t have to be this way. As the executive director of the Immigrant Children Advocates’ Relief Effort (ICARE), I’ve seen firsthand the difference legal services can make. When children are provided with representation from one of the attorneys in our network, they have an over 90 percent chance of winning their case. 

The need for New York State to step up for these children and fund legal representation has never been more urgent. Friday’s announcement of near-total termination of unaccompanied children’s legal services is a stark reminder of just how vulnerable these critical programs are. As a result of this order, 26,000 children nationwide will lose their legal counsel overnight, including thousands in New York. It is on us as a state and a city to codify programs that are resistant to federal attacks.

This will be an ongoing fight. Harsh immigration policies revived from the first Trump administration have overwhelmed detention centers with tens of thousands of new migrants, many of whom will be transferred to other states far from their children or loved ones. Families are living in fear, and immigrant communities are bracing for what comes next. 

After Trump lifted a ban on immigration agents operating in sensitive locations like schools, the Chief Operating Officer of the New York City public school system began issuing instructions to their principals about how to respond if ICE shows up at their doorsteps. Some migrant families have opted to keep their kids home altogether out of fear of what might happen. 

But what happens to those kids and families when ICE does show up? In most cases, it’s just the beginning of an uphill battle in immigration court with no guarantee of counsel for their right to remain in the country. 

In 1893, the Supreme Court ruled deportation as a civil matter, as it was not a punishment for a crime. As a result, constitutional due process protections, including the Sixth Amendment right to an attorney, which is guaranteed in all criminal cases, is not provided to defendants in immigration court. If you can’t find or afford a lawyer, you are forced to go in alone. This absence of legal representation undermines the fair application of justice, and has far reaching implications, including a backlog in immigration courts.

This can be a life or death issue. As of December 2024, over 162,000 people in New York were undergoing pending immigration cases without an attorney, many of whom are children. A large portion of the migrant children ICARE represents arrived in New York alone, fleeing violence, trafficking, and war torn regions. Having a lawyer to defend their case is often the last barrier shielding them from these conditions. It is crucial that we, as New Yorkers, act now to support policies that defend the rights of our most defenseless. 

The most substantial thing New York can do to address this is passing the Access to Representation Act (ARA), which establishes a “right to universal representation, meaning anyone at risk of deportation who cannot afford a lawyer will be provided one.” In passing the ARA, the New York State government would unlock critical funding and more importantly new rights for a growing number of displaced immigrants seeking a pathway to citizenship. 

The state must also pass the Building Up Immigrant Legal Defense (BUILD) Act, which establishes dedicated, multi-year funding to immigration legal service providers. This funding would be allocated to addressing urgent needs while also focusing on long-term planning to respond to ongoing changes in the immigration legal landscape. Along with the ARA, the BUILD Act will increase New York’s capacity to serve immigrant New Yorkers and expand representation to reach underserved communities and legal deserts.

We also need to enact common sense solutions in the Fiscal Year 2026 state budget that provide aid now, as the court cases continue to pile up. This is where nonprofits, coalitions, and social service wings of government have stepped in to restore these rights, defending thousands of cases while simultaneously connecting clients to job training, English lessons, and other integration programs. 

These organizations and local governments can’t do it alone. After allocating $64 million to support immigration services in FY2025, the proposed FY2026 state budget actually slims down its commitment to $44 million, well short of the $165 million that our network has estimated will be required to meet the growing need. This has directly undermined the work of the programs that play crucial roles in providing legal representation and assimilation programs for new arrivals in New York. 

There couldn’t be a more devastating and tone deaf time to enact these budget cuts. Budgets should be viewed as value statements, and as we approach the key deadline for the New York State budget on April 1, New York must decide what kind of state it wants to be.

Sierra Kraft is the executive director of the ICARE Coalition, which expands access to legal representation for unaccompanied immigrant children in New York City. She has spent the past 18 years advocating for immigrant and refugee communities in the U.S. and abroad.