De Blasio Under Fire For Plan To Keep Some Immigrants Out Of Legal Aid Program (Huffington Post)
Huffington Post, June 2, 2017
De Blasio Under Fire For Plan To Keep Some Immigrants Out Of Legal Aid Program
“For the last three years, New York City has footed the bill for lawyers to defend certain immigrants facing deportation under a unique program that other cities have begun to emulate. But as the June 30 deadline to finalize the city’s budget approaches, Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) is pressing the city to keep some immigrants out of the program based on their criminal histories….Denying access to certain people is particularly concerning given the current political climate, with undocumented immigrants at greater threat of being caught up in deportation proceedings, some attorneys argue. On Thursday, the New York City Bar Association wrote to de Blasio urging the city ‘not to deny access to counsel to anyone based upon past convictions or criminal charges.’ ‘Denying counsel to some individuals based on their criminal record, or where they lived before being detained, will gut New York’s model universal representation system for immigrants,” bar association president John Kiernan wrote. ‘In this time of unprecedented hostility to immigrants from the federal government, New York should be expanding access to counsel, not contracting a successful and groundbreaking representation program.’”
