Immigration legal groups stretched thin in Queens
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Immigration legal aid organizations in Queens said their offices are over capacity as demand for representation has increased in 2025. AP file photo/Yuki Iwamura
By Noah Powelson
Before last year, Immigration Law & Justice New York regularly offered free law clinics out of Queens churches to help immigrants find legal assistance.
The nonprofit ran six or seven clinics a year in the World’s Borough, where a trio of lawyers and a number of volunteers helped immigrant New Yorkers navigate their cases. Some were referred to organizations for additional help while others were connected with an attorney then and there who could take on their case for free.
But in the past year, the number of clinics ILJNY offered has been cut in half.
In 2025, they offered three clinics.
Now, only a single lawyer and one volunteer will be available to take on new clients during the organization’s next clinic, scheduled for May.
Reverend Paul Fleck, the executive director of ILJNY, said the reason for the reduction in services was obvious – it was the result of surging demand brought on by increased immigration crackdowns during President Donald Trump’s second term. With many immigration lawyers burned out or tied up with a busy caseload, few remain to take on new clients.
"What we're experiencing in the Trump administration is a broken system that has gotten more broken," Fleck told the Eagle.
Fleck said his attorneys each juggle around 100 individual cases at once, leaving them unable to take on new clients desperately searching for someone to help them.
Every day, Fleck said, they receive a call or email from an immigrant looking for help with their asylum case, deportation proceeding, work visa or various other matters. And every day, they have to tell someone the organization can’t take more clients.
"There are not enough attorneys for too many cases,” Fleck said. “People want immigrants to do it the right way, but they aren't supporting them to do it the right way."
ILJNY is not the only immigration legal aid group at capacity.
As Immigration and Customs Enforcement continues its crackdowns on communities across the country,, the demand for immigration legal representation has skyrocketed.
In Queens, the most diverse county in the country, the situation is no different.
The New York Legal Assistance Group, a civil legal services organization that provides free representation for a variety of issues, said their immigration practice became overburdened in 2025.
While NYLAG saw an overall marginal increase in immigration cases in Queens from 2024 to 2025, going from 3,055 cases to 3,107, the complexity of the cases changed. The group said fewer clients were seeking help for matters like employment authorizations or asylum, and more were looking for representation to prevent their deportation.
In 2024, NYLAG took on 252 removal defense cases in Queens. In 2025, that number jumped to 323, a roughly 28 percent increase.
The problem isn’t just more cases, but how long they go on for. The ever-changing rules and regulations around immigration law during Trump’s second term have elongated court proceedings, forcing attorneys to spend more time on each individual case and delaying them from taking on new clients even as demand rises.
Immigration advocates and city councilmembers called on the city to add an additional $188 million in immigration legal services. Photo via New York Immigration Coalition/X
According to a report from the New York Legal Service Coalition, there have been more than 500 changes to immigration law and policy since January 2025.
Attorneys at organizations like ILJNY and NYLAG are working at their absolute limits for longer and longer periods of time, the groups said.
Melissa Chua, the director of NYLAG’s Immigrant Protection Unit, told the Eagle that immigration cases have also been on the rise as ICE has changed its methods, picking up people without criminal histories, often in public settings.
Chua said one of their recent clients, who had lived in the U.S. for over twenty years and had two children born in the U.S., was picked up in a park while waiting for his wife after work. While the client was waiting, according to Chua, two federal agents approached him and showed him a picture of another supposed immigrant. The agents asked the client if he recognized the person in the photo, and once the client said no and asked to leave, agents arrested him and took him away.
His wife later arrived at the park looking for her husband, who was nowhere to be found.
The client spent months in detention, at first in the detention center in 26 Federal Plaza and then at a different site outside the city, before a filing by NYLAG attorneys led to his release.
“We’re definitely beyond capacity,” Chua told the Eagle. “Cases have become much longer, much more complicated because of changes of law in immigration court.”
New York funds free immigration representation for tens of thousands of people each year, but advocates say more is needed if the city is going to account for the federal government’s ongoing crackdowns.
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. While significant, advocates said it’s simply not enough and more needs to be done by the city and the state to properly fund immigration legal aid.
On Monday, immigration advocates and elected officials rallied on the steps of City Hall to call on the city to invest $188 million for immigration legal services in the city’s budget.
“The city has to and must safeguard access to essential services and legal protections in response to this federal government's harmful policies,” Murad Awawdeh, the president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition, said. “We need continued investment in programs that empower and strengthen our communities.”
The group was joined by City Councilmembers Alexa Avilés, Harvey Epstein, Susan Zhuang and representatives of the Bronx Defenders.
“The full $188 million honestly isn't even enough, but it is a very fair and realistic ask to help us meet the moment to help attorneys meet the moment,” Rosa Cohen-Cruz, the immigration policy director at Bronx Defenders, said. “The legal service community is tired, and we know that there are fresh faces out there ready to join us, ready to pick up the baton and continue, but we need to be able to bring them into the field.”
More funding means more opportunities for groups like ILJNY and NYLAG to apply for grants that could allow them to hire more staff and process complex immigrant court hearings at a much faster pace.
If other legal aid organizations are able to take on more clients, Fleck said, immigrants in the area would be given more options, helping to alleviate some of the pressure smaller organizations like ILJNY have dealt with over the past year.
"A rising tide lifts all boats," Fleck said.
