Imagine that one day, you are evicted from your home. Now miles away from the neighborhood you once were, you look to do everything right all over again, updating your address, transferring your children to a new school more nearby, but suddenly, you are detained. While you are in what seems to be jail despite no knowledge of what you could possibly be charged with, you are informed that you were mailed a notice for a court hearing which you never received, but because you didn’t show up, you have now been issued a “removal order” which may result in you being deported. You learn from others around you that you have the right to request legal help. However, upon requesting assistance, you discover that no one can help you because they do not speak your language.

Sadly, this is not a unique story and is analogous to the experiences of many migrants within NYC, who aim to comply with the requirements of seeking asylum but end up detained by the Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for missed court hearings. This one example describes not only difficulties in navigating ICE policies for migrants seeking asylum, but also alludes to systematic gaps in acquiring healthcare, timely legal aid, and language accommodations that even non-migrants encounter.

These challenges are not just the result of abstract concepts of confusion, fear, and awareness, they represent lived experiences in interacting with systematic shortcomings and deficiencies that everyone from the undocumented, to the impoverished, to those with limited English proficiency, face. However, migrants often experience more of these challenges as such, it is imperative that we as New Yorkers advocate for change that allows service providers to better address the needs of migrants as one of NYC’s most vulnerable populations.

When it comes to services aimed at assisting the migrant population in NYC, the most demanded and costly service is shelter housing. While the policy dialogue regarding shelter housing is dominated by controversy between those who wish to eliminate it and those who work to defend it, this often results in its current implementation, marked by shelter limits, to being overlooked. Shelter limits, first introduced last year by NYC Mayor Eric Adams, were made in response to the city’s inability to accommodate the unprecedented influx of migrants, but the administration also claimed the limits would encourage migrants to pursue alternative housing and self-sufficiency.

An investigation by the New York State Comptroller into the implementation of these shelter limits found evidence of the exact opposite outcome. The comptroller determined that the 60-day shelter limits were implemented haphazardly, with both migrant families and service workers lacking the training and necessary information for even critically important rights such as the right to reapply for shelter housing. Furthermore, the report cited problems associated with reapplication due to the possibility of relocation. Relocation contributed to indirect costs such as requiring case management transfer, causing mailing and address discrepancies which resulted in missed court dates and legal delays for asylum seekers, and impeded children’s education when they were forced to transfer schools. While some policy changes have been enacted as a result of this investigation, such as no longer relocating families with elementary school-aged children to relocate and establishing a mailing center, not all recommendations by the Comptroller’s investigations were adopted. Further change remains necessary to address the continued effect of instability caused by shelter limits, such as adopting the Massachusetts model which allows its residents nine consecutive months of stay, with three additional months allowed for those participating in workforce programs to better encourage self-sufficiency.

Further complicating these issues is language access. Investigations by the Language Access Secret Shopper program found many instances of non-compliance with Local Law 30, which requires agencies to assign language access coordinators, translate widely used documents into 10 specified languages, and offer/inform clients of their right to interpretation services via phone in at least 100 languages, among other requirements. Non-compliance was rampant and included untranslated signage, failures to provide necessary documents in multiple languages, and staff members who were not equipped to assist individuals with limited English proficiency, especially those who speak underserved and/or Indigenous languages. The city is taking some steps in the right direction. For example, it has restored 3.8 million dollars to the city’s budget for language access services for the fiscal year of 2024-2025. But this is not enough to address language access, especially in light of actors beyond the scope of the city’s control such as ICE and the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

It is time for NYC to establish a multilingual, centralized information hub that can compile and translate the policies and common documents of outside actors, as well as integrate this information with existing resource hubs such as the U.S Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review’s List of Pro Bono Legal Service Providers and the New York City Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs Resources for Immigrants. Doing so would enable migrants to better access services and understand their rights. Furthermore service providers, NGO workers, and immigration lawyers would experience fewer delays by enabling migrants who have limited English proficiency to fill out forms, collect evidence, and communicate with Courts and agencies as their clients with English proficiency are empowered to do within all matters of obtaining legal and welfare relief from healthcare to asylum.

Aymen Rasheed is a sophomore at Hunter College and is majoring in Political Science, the Thomas Hunter Honors Program, and the Public Policy Certificate. Currently, he has been an intern at the law firm Davis, Ndanusa, Ikhlas, and Saleem LLP as a legal intern specializing in immigration law. He aspires to attend law school and become a public interest lawyer specializing in immigration law, with the ultimate goal of gaining enough experience to serve as Commissioner of the NYC Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs.