Over the past year and a half nearly 150,000 people have arrived in New York State after traveling through the southern border. As cold weather moves in and housing becomes more dire, empty beds in hotel shelters upstate continue to fill with migrant families evicted from NYC shelters after a 30-60 day limited stay. Legal service providers in Rochester, Buffalo, and Albany are stretched very thin, and migrants from New York City are arriving in serious need of legal and social services.

We need your help! Legal service providers across New York State are working with Immigrant ARC and the New York Immigration Coalition to conduct rapid response legal clinics focused on helping hotel shelter residents outside of New York City apply for asylum, Temporary Protected Status (TPS), and work permits. Local service providers will coordinate these services, and Immigrant ARC and NYIC will support them with logistics, training, and materials.

We are currently looking for in-person volunteers on the following dates: 4/5.

Volunteer requirements include:
1. Access to a laptop
2. Completing an orientation call from 4 – 5 PM ET the Wednesday before your clinic
3. Viewing a recorded training

Note on liability and limited scope: Immigrant ARC will provide liability insurance for all clinic days, and all clinic applicants will sign a limited scope agreement. Each asylum application will include form EOIR-61 (Notice of Entry of Limited Appearance for Document Assistance Before the Immigration Court). Attorneys or law students without an EOIR number will have a supervisor sign as the application preparer.

There are volunteer opportunities available for EVERY level of experience.

1. Application Prep Volunteers:
• No prior experience with asylum needed—training and legal supervision will be provided
• Open to attorneys, law students, and attorneys without asylum application experience
• Tasks could include: intake and asylum eligibility screening for hotel shelter residents using an in-depth questionnaire, one-on-one application preparation for the demographic and travel portions of the asylum application, and supplemental forms such as the Motion to Change Venue and Change of Address

2. Legal Volunteers:
• Volunteers must have some experience with the asylum application process in addition to the training provided
• Open to attorneys, DOJ Accredited Reps, paralegals, law students, or others with asylum application experience
• Tasks could include: One-on-one application preparation with hotel shelter residents for the asylum claim portion of the asylum application

3. Supervising Attorney Volunteers:
• Open to attorneys with a high level of asylum application experience
• Tasks could include: provide final review of asylum application packets for hotel shelter residents, assist with the check-out process, giving an overview of next steps once an application is submitted, and Sign EOIR-61 for attorneys and law students without an EOIR number

After volunteering for this project, you will receive a link to indicate which opportunity you would like to sign up for, and the shift(s) that work for your schedule.