State immigration legal services can’t keep up with demand, new report finds
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A new report from the New York Legal Service Coalition says New York’s immigrant legal services lack funding needed to hire enough attorneys to meet demand. AP file photo by Alex Brandon
By Noah Powelson
Families racing to find legal documents while they’re detained, missing court appearances out of fear, getting deported to countries they have no ties to – immigrant New Yorkers regularly faced these situations this past year as legal aid services struggled to meet newfound demand, a new report shows.
The New York Legal Service Coalition released a new report on Monday detailing the surge in demand for immigration legal aid services as President Donald Trump made immigration crackdowns a priority for his second term.
While New York funds free immigration representation for tens of thousands of people each year, the need for more attorneys has skyrocketed in the past year as the number of people detained by immigration enforcement has increased, according to the report.
“New York has built one of the most comprehensive state-funded immigration legal defense systems in the nation,” the report reads. “This investment is both extraordinary and indispensable — but it is not sufficient. Current enforcement levels, detention practices, and legal system complexity have driven demand far beyond existing capacity.”
According to the report, over 65,000 immigrants were represented by an immigration legal aid attorney in 2025. Of those, over 6,500 received legal aid assistance in obtaining employment authorization, over 2,500 in obtaining citizenship, and over 2,700 in obtaining green cards.
Gretchen Gonzalez, executive director of the Erie County Bar Association’s Volunteer Legal Services Program, said her office has seen a noticeable uptick in immigration legal aid demand in the past year.
The Volunteer Legal Services Program is an upstate nonprofit legal aid organization that provides free legal aid services for immigrants currently held in the federal detention center in Batavia.
Immigration issues make up roughly half of her office’s services, Gonzalez told the Eagle.
They receive about 90 calls a week from people seeking legal help with their immigration cases.
“The need is huge,” Gonzalez told the Eagle. “There's a noticeable uptick in demand, and that's because of increased ICE enforcement…The Batavia facility is overcrowded, they have people sleeping on the floor of the gymnasium.”
Part of the increase in demand is because Immigration and Customs Enforcement has expanded their presence across the state, especially when it comes to pursuing immigrants who don’t have previous criminal history.
Ever-changing immigration laws and policies under the Trump administration have likewise complicated proceedings and delayed cases from progressing. According to the report, there have been more than 500 changes to immigration law and policy since January 2025. Among them was an effort from the federal government to deny bond hearings for those that entered the U.S. without inspection at a regular port of entry, regardless of criminal history.
As more immigrants without criminal history are detained, and bonds are rejected more frequently, detention facilities have become crowded, families of detainees struggle to find necessary documents and legal aid attorneys rush to file their paperwork for a growing backlog of immigration clients.
Gonzalez, who helped write the report published on Monday, said that it wasn’t just her office struggling to keep up. Across the state, the report found that, on average, for each client an immigration legal services provider takes on, 10 are turned away due lack of staff.
“We're supposed to run a universal representation practice, and we don't have the staff to meet that goal,” Gonzalez said. “We're doing what we can to represent the people, but some fall through the cracks.”
To address these concerns, NYLSC called on the legislature and Governor Kathy Hochul to further expand already record-breaking immigrant legal aid funding, as well as pass legislation that would guarantee legal representation to thousands of immigrants.
In Fiscal Year 2026, the state invested approximately $64.2 million in immigration legal services and defense through the NYS Office for New Americans, more than any other state in the country. But advocates say the money can’t keep up with the surge of immigration cases over the past year.
The report calls for the state to invest $175 million in immigration legal services, both to sustain current legal aid programs and drive attorney recruitment with competitive wages. Both the Senate and Assembly included the full $175 million in their one-house budget proposals, but Hochul has not indicated whether she supports the funding.
"Governor Hochul is committed to keeping New York communities safe, which is why she has proposed a commonsense set of policies to hold ICE accountable while protecting the constitutional rights of every New Yorker,” a spokesperson for the governor’s office told the Eagle in a statement. “The Governor remains focused on working with the legislature to keep federal overreach out of New York, and will review all legislation that passes both houses."
The report also lauded the Access to Representation Act, a bill sponsored by Queens Assemblymember Catalina Cruz, that would create a statewide right to have a lawyer for immigration proceedings for those who cannot afford one. Around $50 million of the requested funding would also go toward new emergency deportation defense and social services implemented by the bill.
“For immigrant families, legal representation in deportation or detention proceedings can mean the difference between stability and separation, as this report makes clear,” Cruz said in a statement. “Legislative initiatives such as the Access to Representation Act and the BUILD Act, as well as the $175 million investment in immigration legal services are imperative. For the 1.1 million immigrants in Queens County and their families, we must take immediate action to prevent people from having to navigate these complex legal systems on their own.”
The Access to Representation Act was first introduced in the 2019-2020 legislative session, and has seen a steady increase in support as ICE enforcement elicited outrage across the country.
The report also called for the passage of the Building Up Immigrant Legal Defense Act, otherwise known as the BUILD Act. The bill would expand permissible use of funding in legal services infrastructure investment, with the ultimate goal of increasing recruitment and training initiatives for immigration attorneys.
The BUILD Act, sponsored by Queens State Senator John Liu, currently sits in the State Finance Committee.
