The Voices of Immigrant Young People
Amidst the uncertainties of immigration law and the pandemic, it is the voices of young people served by Volunteers of Legal Service’s (VOLS) Immigration Project that remind our team daily why we must always push forward.
In our 2021 year-end update, we share the story of Eric M., an immigrant New Yorker from Ecuador who wrote to VOLS after receiving his green card last month:
I wanted to thank you for all the support that I have received from you all this year. It has changed my life completely. If I had not met you, I would not know what would become of me. I am grateful for your work that constantly helps undocumented people and others.
And we invite you to support the VOLS Immigration Project’s citywide services with a year-end donation. Our legal assistance empowers young, immigrant New Yorkers to know their rights and adjust their status, so that they can pursue their desired educational and career paths.
We are proud of the VOLS staff and pro bono attorneys’ efforts in 2021 to expand capacity with limited resources to assist our young clients. This last year, our services benefited 1,381 immigrant young people and their family members, including support for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) renewals and conditional initial applications, Temporary Protect Status (TPS) filings for Venezuelan and Haitian community members, Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) applications, and more.
Many of our clients secured protection from deportation, work authorization, permanent residency, and even naturalization for some. We provided virtual legal clinics, workshops, and educational resources in multiple languages, and we collaborated with a range of community organizations facing new issues, including recently with La Jornada and Riseboro, organizations that saw new arrivals dealing with issues such as food insecurity.
New York City’s immigrant communities need our support and allyship as they advocate for their rights and for their bright future. Requests for legal assistance continue to outpace the capacity of most immigration legal service providers, including VOLS. But with your support, we can help our city to bounce forward.
Thank you for being part of the VOLS community.
Best,
Sin Yen and the VOLS Immigration Project Team
Sin Yen Ling
Director, Immigration Project
Volunteers of Legal Service
Support VOLS’ Year-End Appeal Campaign
As 2021 comes to an end, resilience is on our minds at VOLS. Please help New York City’s immigrant communities to bounce forward. Donate today to help fund VOLS’ free, citywide legal services through #BrooklynGives, an initiative of the Brooklyn Community Foundation.
Eric M. Receives his Green Card
VOLS’ client Eric M.* arrived in the Unites States from Ecuador in March 2020, right at the start of the pandemic. He initially lived with his mother, but they had a falling out and he was displaced from the home. Between their initial dispute and later reconciliation, Eric sought legal assistance and was referred to VOLS.
VOLS recognized that Mr. M would be eligible to apply for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS). The SIJS program was created in 1990 by Congress to protect immigrant children who have been abandoned, abused, or neglected—creating a pathway to lawful permanent residence (a “green card”) and eventually citizenship. The process has historically run smoothly. But 2016 federal policy changes prompted an administrative backlog for processing SIJS applications, causing significant delays depending on the applicant’s country of origin, now up to several years for young people from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico.
Due to Mr. M’s profile of arriving from Ecuador – a non-backlogged country – as well as his unhoused status and age, VOLS was able to file for an “age-out” review by the state Family Court, which certified our client’s eligibility for SIJS on an expedited basis due to his quickly approaching 18th birthday. And as he had resolved his situation with his mother, the petition was approved quickly, and VOLS soon filed his Adjustment of Status (AOS) petition with the United States Department of Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Mr. M received his green card in November 2021, and the VOLS team has since provided additional referrals to pursue higher education. In his thank you note to the VOLS team, he noted, “Even though my situation is different from the undocumented people who have been living here for a long time, waiting for an answer to be able to work legally and have the same opportunities, I obtained it in a year which makes me feel responsible to not take this help for granted. I am so grateful for all this, and I will make the best of myself to achieve my goals. Thank you so much. It was a pleasure to have shared my story with you and have you been a part of it.” Click here to read more about Mr. M’s case.
VOLS meanwhile advocates on behalf of all SIJS applicants as part of the #EndSIJSBacklog coalition.
*Client name changed for privacy purposes
DACA Recipient William Cabeza Featured in The New York Times
2021 began with hope for a brighter future for New York City’s immigrant communities. After previously providing a layer of security for 800,000 young people, the federal DACA program was reinstated, and the government invited new applications. Further, the Administration announced new relief in the form of Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelan, Burmese, and Syrian immigrants, as well as a new registration period for Haitian immigrants.
In July, however, a Texas Federal District Court decided to once again throw the DACA program into limbo status, preventing new applications from being processed and delaying the ability of a whole generation from obtaining work authorization and protections from deportation.
The New York Times profiled VOLS client William Cabeza Castillo, an essential worker at the NYU Medical Center. VOLS had submitted his DACA renewal with pro bono support from attorneys at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett earlier this year. As of July, however, Mr. Cabeza faced a sudden loss of employment due to a backlog of DACA renewal processing, and his protected status had expired. The Times quoted Mr. Cabeza: “Knowing that Friday’s ruling did not impede renewals was still not reassuring, he said. ‘It’s a lot of uncertainty. I’m frustrated by the whole system.’”
Fortunately, VOLS advocacy helped so secure his renewal, and his work authorization was finally approved in early September. But the status of too many young people remains uncertain.
VOLS’ Jenifer Guzman Interviewed by CUNY TV
In January, VOLS Immigration Project Community Advocate Jenifer Guzman was interviewed by CUNY Television’s “I am a Dreamer.” She discussed how VOLS’ Immigration Project has supported and empowered the immigrant community. In addition to calling for the then-new Biden Administration to provide truly comprehensive immigration reforms, Ms. Guzman also discussed how VOLS has complemented the work of community partners like John Jay College’s Immigrant Success Center in providing students with legal assistance and resources. Click here to see the full interview:
The VOLS Immigration Project continues to respond to the increasing demand for immigration legal services, as we recover from the pandemic and adjust to the quickly evolving changes of immigration policy. We thank our community-based and bono partners, our supporters, and our clients for their trust and resilience during one of New York City’s most challenging years.