Upstate Immigration Court RFA

Since its creation in 2012, the New York State Office for New Americans (ONA) has provided an array of supportive immigration related services to hundreds of thousands of new Americans across the State. ONA’s service delivery, including its immigration legal services, have evolved as the needs of the community have changed.

Starting in 2017, ONA has supported the implementation of the upstate New York Immigrant Family Unity Project (NYIFUP) to provide legal representation to all immigrants detained and facing deportation proceedings in Upstate and Western New York. ONA, through a previous RFA, established agreements with not-for-profit organizations to create the ONA Upstate Immigration Court program to continue to support upstate NYIFUP.

The purpose of this RFA is to continue the successes of the current Upstate Immigration Court program to fund up to four grants. Three grants will be made to hire and retain immigration attorneys and/or fully-accredited Department of Justice (DOJ) representatives to provide free and expert legal assistance under the “universal representation” model to detained immigrants with a removal defense hearing at federal immigration courts (“Part A”). One grant will support a Coordinator to provide support to the legal service providers with referrals, training, and technical assistance (“Part B”).