Unions back increased funding for immigrant legal services

As lawmakers and immigrant rights advocates continue to push for legislation to enact greater protections for immigrant New Yorkers, a number of politically powerful unions are throwing their support behind bolstering legal representation for those communities. 

Labor organizations including 32BJ, the Communication Workers of America, the New York State Nurses Association and the New York State Laborers Union have sent a letter to Gov. Kathy Hochul asking her to include $175 million for immigrant legal services in the budget. The groups also called for her to back the Access to Representation Act, which would create a legal right to an attorney in immigration court, and the Building Up Immigrant Legal Defense Act, better known as the BUILD Act, to bolster the existing legal frameworks available. “Legal representation for immigrant workers keeps families together, workplaces stable, and our unions strong,” the letter reads. 

Union support for the Access to Representation Act is not new. Several of the unions that signed on to this letter first backed the measure in 2023. For years, advocates for immigrants have also demanded new funds for legal services, in addition to passing the bill. The $175 million this year is slightly higher than the previous $165 million ask. But the BUILD Act is a newer measure, and more unions have backed the push this time. 

This is also the first time that both the state Senate and the Assembly included the full $175 million in their one-house budget proposals, substantially more than the  $64.2 million Hochul pitched this year. Accounting for an additional $8.3 million in existing funds Hochul had proposed shifting around to bolster immigrant legal services as well, the total funding amount would come to over $183 million. Last year, Hochul initially proposed just $44.2 million in funding, though the final budget ended up with $64.2 million for immigrant legal services. 

Immigration issues are top of mind for many lawmakers, as well as the governor, as President Donald Trump doubles down on his mass deportation agenda. Legislative leaders and the governor have committed to coming to a compromise on measures to increase immigrant protections and expand legal recourse against immigration agents. “Especially when immigration is at the front of the center, we took that as a really amazing sign that there is a potential for the full 175 million,” said Kelsey Pirnak, advocacy manager for the Vera Institute of Justice’s Advancing Universal Representation Initiative. “Obviously, the Legislature responded in kind with an amazing allocation … But I think that that was definitely a sign that this is open for negotiations.”

Hochul did not include the Access to Representation or the BUILD Act in the immigration proposals she is negotiating with lawmakers. Speaking to reporters at an unrelated press conference in Albany on Monday, the governor would not say whether she supported either bill, or the increased funding for immigrant legal services. She said it fell under the category of “negotiating in public,” which she often says she does not engage in.