A center set up to help recently-arrived migrants apply for asylum has assisted more than 1,300 newcomers file their claims since it was announced in late June, City Hall announced on Wednesday.
The so-called “Asylum Application Help Center” opened with help from legal service providers and white shoe law firms — working pro bono — to help some of the tens of thousands of migrants who have come to New York since last year fill out and submit their asylum claims. It was opened, in part, to equip more migrants in the city with permits to work in the U.S. — as filing an asylum claim is a critical step toward being able to legally work.
“In the little over a month since we opened our Asylum Application Help Center, we have assisted migrants submit over 1,300 asylum applications,” Adams said in a statement. “Our innovative model is the first in the nation to combine government, private law firms, and nonprofits as they provide asylum application help at this scale.”
The announcement comes as the city has received over 95,600 migrants since last spring. The city’s shelter system is currently housing over 107,900 people, 56,200 of whom are migrants.
It follows days of migrants being left to sleep on the streets outside the Roosevelt Hotel, which serves as the city’s asylum seeker welcome center, in Midtown Manhattan.
The administration on Wednesday also revealed it had enlisted additional asylum application assistance from some of the city’s public and private universities, which will start helping this fall. Under the partnership, students at four City University of New York campuses, New York University, Columbia University and New York Law School will be able to volunteer to help migrants complete their asylum applications at the center.
Adams’ deputy mayor for health and mental hygiene, Anne Williams-Isom, pitched the volunteer role as a chance for law students to get real-world experience.
“These universities are providing the students with an ability to earn credit for their time helping at the center,” she said during a migrant influx briefing on Wednesday.
“We are coming together from all corners of New York City to help our newest New Yorkers get their applications in so that they can work and begin their quest towards the American dream,” she added.
Migrants who want to work in the U.S. aren’t eligible for legal employment until six months after submitting their asylum claims.
New arrivals only have one year to submit an asylum application, a date which many migrants who arrived in the city last year have likely already passed. If a claim is not submitted by the one-year mark, migrants become ineligible for asylum.
Rahul Agarwal, Adams’ deputy chief counsel, said the center is focused on helping the migrants who can still apply for asylum, while the city is connecting those who have been here for over a year with legal representation.
“If we have folks that have hit the one-year mark, we’re trying to refer them to legal services providers so that they have legal representation to address that issue,” Agarwal said.
But for those who are able to get their applications in, Agarwal said, it can take quite a long time for the applications to be processed.
“It takes a long time. I mean, the system is overburdened, applications are filed and they often take years before they’re actually resolved,” he said. “We, the mayor, the city, have advocated for increased resources to try to address that backlog, but there is a substantial asylum backlog.”
