After suffering beatings and torture while detained in Cuba, Mr. F escaped his native country as part of the Mariel boatlift, and was paroled into the United States in 1980. As a result of that torture, Mr. F suffers from memory loss and mental illness. Unable to secure appropriate treatment for his mental health issues upon arriving in the U.S., Mr. F became homeless and drifted around the country. Mr. F made his way to New York, where he met his future wife, a U.S. citizen. Active churchgoers, Mr. and Mrs. F married in 1996, and after a period of homelessness, eventually found their way out of the shelter system and established a stable home. However, their peaceful marriage was disrupted in December 2009 when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrived to arrest Mr. F on an outstanding exclusion order related to a burglary committed in 1983, when Mr. F was homeless and could not receive treatment for his mental health problems. Mrs. F, who is nearly 70 years old and suffers from her own severe physical and mental difficulties, was helpless as she watched the agents take her husband into custody.
Mr. and Mrs. F live on a fixed income, and did not have the financial resources to hire an attorney. Volunteers from the New York City Bar Justice Center advocated on Mr. F’s behalf, and were able to secure his release from detention and begin the process of regularizing his immigration status. For many indigent immigrants in New York, like the Fs, their inability to locate or afford competent legal representation is the most significant obstacle standing between them and relief from removal. This article will discuss how the private bar has been, and can continue to be, involved in pro bono representation of indigent immigrants, and highlight some of the outstanding local programs that try to meet the needs of the city’s immigrant population.
Laws and the Indigent
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.
For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]
