Translate
The Emerald Isle Immigration Center's highly qualified staff assists clients in many aspects of immigrant life and law. The EIIC prides itself on the extraordinary services it provides.

Information Meetings on President’s Executive Action on Immigration

President Obama has announced his Executive Action to provide administrative relief to certain individuals without immigration status currently in the United States. Early details indicate that his plan will help long-term undocumented parents of children who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents by giving them authorization to work legally and protecting them from deportation. We will have more official details about the program in the days and weeks ahead. In the meantime you can attend information meetings organized by the Irish Centers in the region (NYIC, Emerald Isle Immigration Center and Aisling Irish Community Center ), addressing the changes in US Immigration policy brought by this Executive Action. These information meetings will be held on the following times and dates at the following locations:

Monday, December 1st at 6:00pm – St Barnabas High School Auditorium (H.S. Chapel). Entrance is located at corner of E. 241st Street and McLean Avenue, Woodlawn.

Tuesday, December 2nd at 6:00pm – Sunnyside Community Services Center, 43-31 39th St, Sunnyside, NY 11104.

Wednesday, December 3rd at 6:00pm – St. Sebastian’s Parish Center, 39-60 57th St, Woodside, NY 11377 (Bilingual Attorney Kelly Becker-Smith will be hosting the Dec-3 event).

Experts will be on hand to answer your questions.

Be advised that no one is eligible at this time for these benefits announced by the president. The applications process will not start before May 2015.  Beware of any scams offering the ability to apply for benefits immediately under this new program.

Contact an Irish Center for the most accurate information and advice.

You can read more about the president’s Executive Action in the Coalition of Irish Immigration Center’s press release.

 

President’s Executive Action on Immigration

 

The President announced his plan for executive action to provide administrative relief to certain individuals without immigration status currently in the United States on November 20, 2014. Early details indicate that his plan will help long term undocumented parents of children who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents by giving them authorization to work legally and protecting them from deportation.

We will have more official details about the program in the days and weeks ahead and in conjunction with community partners at Aisling and New York Irish Center we will be scheduling public meetings the first week of December to provide further information about who will qualify, when to apply and the application requirements. Please call back or access our website www.eiic.org, sign up for EIIC newsletter updates, follow our Facebook page or Twitter stream for further updates and the dates and times of our upcoming informational meetings.

Importantly be advised that no one is eligible at this time and the applications process will not start before May 2015 and beware of any scams offering the ability to apply for benefits immediately under this new program

 

 

New York City Passes Groundbreaking Detainer Reform Laws

 

On Oct. 22, 2014, the New York City Council passed groundbreaking legislation dramatically expanding existing city laws that limit the circumstances under which the New York City Police Department (“NYPD”) (Int 0487-2014) and Department of Correction (“DOC”) (Int 0486-2014) will honor an U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) detainer. The bills were signed into law on Friday, November 14th and will take effect thirty (30) days later, on or about Dec. 14, 2014. These new laws will greatly benefit future noncitizen criminal defendants and could also potentially prevent noncitizens currently detained in DOC custody from being transferred to immigration detention. Once in force, the new laws will mean that very few, if any, individuals will be transferred from NYPD and DOC to immigration detention. Thousands of New Yorkers each year will be spared from deportation.

Under the new detainer discretion laws, the NYPD and DOC may no longer honor detainer requests issued by ICE unless two criteria are satisfied. ICE must present the City with a warrant from an Article III federal judge (or a federal magistrate judge) that establishes that there is probable cause that the individual sought is subject to arrest by ICE. Additionally, even if ICE possesses a judicial warrant, the NYPD and DOC will only honor a detainer if the person has been convicted within the last five years of a violent or serious crime or is found to be a possible match on the terrorist watch list.

The laws include several additional measures to protect immigrant New Yorkers. ICE is no longer allowed to keep an office on Rikers Island. Additionally, DOC cannot expend resources assisting in civil immigration enforcement, including sharing information about clients with ICE, except as required by federal law or under other limited circumstances. NYPD has no limits on information sharing; therefore there is still a risk that ICE will appear at the court or at people’s homes. Lastly, the NYC Department of Probation announced that it will issue a policy consistent with this legislation in the near future.

For more information, the Immigrant Defense Project and Cardozo School of Law have created a detailed chart and practice advisory here.

Courtesy of the New York State Defenders Association.

EXECUTIVE ACTION ON IMMIGRATION COULD HAPPEN AS SOON AS THIS WEEK

NOVEMBER 17, 2014
EXECUTIVE ACTION ON IMMIGRATION COULD HAPPEN AS SOON AS THIS WEEK
While nothing has been confirmed, President Obama has indicated that he intends to announce a broad overhaul of the current immigration enforcement system by the end of this year. He may take executive action as soon as this coming week to help up to five million unauthorized immigrants. Sources indicate that his plan would help undocumented parents of children who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents by giving them authorization to work legally and protecting them from deportation, which would relieve many families’ fears of being separated.

Please keep checking our Facebook page and Twitter feed for updates on any White House announcements, further details of the plan, and any public information events that we will host.