Attorneys working with the City Bar Justice Center's Immigrant Justice project will provide legal services to young people living in shelters run by Covenant House, the two organizations announced Thursday. The move responds to a call by the New York City government for civil society to mobilize to provide shelter, basic necessities and longer-term resources to asylum-seekers, thousands of whom have been shipped to New York and other blue states by Republican governors of Florida and Texas in what's been criticized by humanitarian groups as "kidnapping."
"The City Bar Justice Center is proud to collaborate with Covenant House and a growing roster of generous pro bono partners to help meet urgent legal needs of migrant youth caught up in a growing crisis rooted in systemic inequities," Kurt M. Denk, the executive director of the City Bar Justice Center, said in a statement. "We look forward to providing these youngest new New Yorkers with high-quality legal assistance that can help lessen their burdens as they cope with sudden life changes."
New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Oct. 7 declared a state of emergency, noting that over 17,000 asylum-seekers had arrived in the city since the spring, most lacking a place to stay. The new arrivals included 2,896 families with children, 6,014 lone adults and 734 families of all adults, according to the mayor. Many were dropped off by charter buses at Port Authority Bus Station in the middle of the night at the behest of the states of Texas and Florida, without coordinating with New York.
The state of emergency directs the city's health, emergency management, immigration, technology, homeless services, housing and other agencies to work together to provide assistance to the new arrivals. But with the shelter system on track to be responsible for 100,000 people by the end of the year if Southern states keep sending migrants to the city at the same rate, Adams has called for private actors to step up.
It was not immediately clear how many asylum-seekers are part of the target demographic of Covenant House, whose mission is to provide shelter, food, clothing, and medical and mental health care to 14- to 20-year-olds who are facing homelessness. At least 5,500 school-age children are among the asylum-seekers, according to the mayor's office. It was not clear if any unaccompanied minors are among them.
The City Bar and Covenant House on Sept. 28 held a virtual clinic on immigration law, which will be followed throughout the rest of the year by "know your rights" and other programming. When possible, attorneys volunteering with the City Bar will also work toward securing permanent status for the young people living in Covenant House shelters, according to the announcement.
"We are privileged to welcome and shelter these traumatized young people who are escaping drug cartels, starvation, danger to their lives for being LGBTQ+, political persecution and human trafficking," Covenant House New York Executive Director Julie Farber said in a statement. "This crisis is stretching all service providers beyond capacity, and their legal needs far surpass what our small legal department can accommodate. We are extremely grateful to the City Bar Justice Center for partnering with us to ensure that all of the young people we serve have access to the highest quality legal services at this traumatic moment in their lives."
--Editing by Rich Mills.
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