New York Helped Thousands of Migrants With Legal Issues. That's Ending.

New York Times

16-05-2025

At the height of the migrant crisis in 2023, Mayor Eric Adams launched an initiative to offer limited but potentially crucial legal help to the thousands of migrants overwhelming New York City shelters.
The taxpayer-funded effort transformed the headquarters of the American Red Cross, near Times Square, into a go-to destination for migrants to file paperwork for asylum and temporary work permits, with hundreds of staffers helping migrants complete more than 100,000 applications.
On Friday, the city announced that the center, the Asylum Application Help Center, would close by the end of June, blaming 'gaps in state funding' for migrant-related costs.
'We are disappointed to have to make the difficult decision' to close the center, Liz Garcia, a spokeswoman for the mayor, said in a statement, pointing out that it had provided assistance on over 109,000 applications for asylum, work authorization and temporary protected status, a federal program that allows migrants from certain countries to live and work in the United States.
The imminent shutdown marks the latest shrinking of the city's response to the migrant influx, which has abated because of stricter immigration policies that have sharply halted border crossings, leading City Hall to close dozens of shelters during the past year.
More than 100 migrants are arriving in the city each week, down from a high of 4,000 last year. Still, about 38,000 migrants, mostly families with children, remain in shelters, down from a peak of 69,000 in January 2024.
The city's retrenchment comes as the Trump administration has threatened to withhold billions of dollars in funding from jurisdictions it regards as obstructing deportation efforts and providing benefits to undocumented immigrants. The federal government has already clawed back $80 million in federal funds from New York City meant for migrant shelters, leading to a lawsuit, and has moved to withhold even more.
The move resurfaced a separate squabble between city and state officials over migrant funds.
This year, Mr. Adams, a Democrat, had demanded $1 billion in state funding from Gov. Kathy Hochul and lawmakers in Albany to cover the city's spending on migrants. But state leaders, who allocated $4.3 billion to the city for the services during the past two years, did not include additional money in this year's budget agreement.
City Hall blamed the legal service cuts on the lack of new state funding, but the governor's office noted that the city has drawn down only $1.6 billion of the previously allocated funds.
'The number of weekly migrant arrivals has declined by 95 percent, and the city has more than $2 billion from the state that they have yet to draw from, which is why this year's budget did not include additional funding,' said Avi Small, a spokesman for Ms. Hochul. 'The governor will continue partnering with City Hall to address their responsibility to provide shelter to new arrivals.'
City officials contend that they have already budgeted or spent the remaining $2.7 billion but have yet to seek reimbursement from the state.
When it was created in July 2023, the Asylum Application Help Center aspired to assist migrants — and ease the strain on the city's shelter system.
Many of the thousands of migrants arriving in the city were staying for prolonged periods because they were often penniless and could not work legally. That forced the city to spend more than $7 billion to open and run new shelters.
City officials hoped that assistance to migrants filing asylum applications would help them become eligible for federally issued work permits more quickly and ease the burden on the city.
The effort, which city officials said cost $90 million over two years, did not provide legal representation for migrants but served as a first step for them to submit important legal paperwork.
The services, at one point offered in five locations and satellite clinics, were mostly available to migrants living in shelters. City officials cast it as a valuable effort that centralized legal services for migrants and leaned on the expertise of law firms, universities and nonprofits.
The demand for legal assistance diminished as the influx of migrants dwindled.
On Thursday afternoon, Jacob Mor-Lamp, a father from Nicaragua, was among the few migrants seeking help at the center in Midtown, and he had been waiting for assistance all day.
Mr. Mor-Lamp said he fled Nicaragua with his 7-year-old son after his wife, a doctor, was assassinated while caring for protesters demonstrating against the government. He arrived in the United States in January and made it to New York in March after spending time in Texas.
He said he has been trying to get his asylum case transferred to New York so he doesn't miss his court hearing in Texas later this month. And he said had been waiting for months for a work permit.
He had visited the help center several times this year and said he found the staff friendly and the services helpful. But last week, he began noticing that the services were taking longer despite fewer migrants waiting outside.
'I've been here since 8 a.m., and they haven't been able to help me,' he said. 'I've been waiting for my work permit for over 100 days, and I'm worried that something has happened.'
With his asylum case in flux, and after going so long without a job, Mr. Mor-Lamp said he had been thinking recently about self-deporting, possibly to Costa Rica, because he said he fears for his life in Nicaragua.
'I'm wasting my life here," he said. 'I'm Nicaraguan and my community is known as hard workers. We don't take handouts, and this feels wrong to me.'