QNS: City Council fully funds program that provides free legal counsel to immigrants facing deportation

“The City Council is dedicating $16.6 million of this year’s budget to fund and expand the New York Immigrant Family Unity Project (NYIFUP), the nation’s first public defender system for detained immigrants facing deportation.

The program is designed to provide free legal representation from providers such as The Legal Aid Society, the Bronx Defenders and the Brooklyn Defenders Services to eligible detained immigrants facing deportation.

According to an estimate by the Vera Institute of Justice, New Yorkers represented by a NYIFUP attorney have a 48 percent success rate in their cases, as opposed to a 4 percent success rate by immigrants who lack legal representation.”

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