Brooklyn to participate in nation’s first public defender system
For the first time in the United States, detained immigrants who cannot afford attorneys of their own will be provided with court-appointed deportation defense counsel through the New York Immigrant Family Unity Project (NYIFUP).
Funded through the New York City Council, this first-in-the-nation pilot program will operate at the Varick Street Immigration Court in New York City. The pilot program will provide legal representation for New Yorkers who are detained and at risk of permanent exile from their families and the communities they call home.
The City Council’s $500,000 investment will allow two legal service organizations, the Bronx Defenders and Brooklyn Defender Services, to provide representation for 190 of the approximately 900 indigent detained and otherwise unrepresented immigrants who will face deportation in the New York City Immigration Court this year.