For TJ, Managing Attorney at Immigration Law and Justice New York, church-based clinics are part of what he loves most about ILJNY.
“I don’t know of any other agency in the country that brings attorneys into remote neighborhoods where immigrants live, and creates a safe haven in a church basement – a place they trust because they know the pastor; they know it’s safe from ICE raids. For me, it gets me out of the office. You feel like you’re on the front lines, in these neighborhoods experiencing a lot of ICE presence and fear.”
On the Front Lines of Changing Need
New York City is a “homing place,” TJ says. “Most of the world wants to come here.” The city’s diversity is reflected in the extraordinary diversity of ILJNY’s clinics. “Each of our clinics is unique because the neighborhoods are different.”
At ILJNY’s clinic in Brooklyn, most clients are from Caribbean countries, like Barbados and Haiti. In Chinatown, what began as a largely Chinese client base has evolved to include mostly Dominicans and South Americans.
Every day, ILJNY receives calls and emails from people with legal questions and urgent needs regarding their immigration status. TJ estimates that 80% of incoming calls are from people in deportation proceedings. Many are seeking asylum because it is the only possible remedy left to them.
“They’re desperately looking for any place to go to apply for asylum, and so in some cases, we are applying for benefits that we normally would not have the capacity to take on.”
Even the cases ILJNY is able to accept are increasingly fraught. In the last year, shifting case law and regulatory changes under the second Trump administration have upended what once would have been straightforward asylum claims.
Under traditional asylum standards, applicants needed to show only a 10% chance of persecution in their home country. Now, in certain cases, Department of Homeland Security attorneys move to pretermit, or terminate, claims at the very first procedural hearing, arguing that the applicant could have found “safe haven” in a third country like Uganda, Honduras, Belize, or Ecuador.
“People who have a straightforward asylum case, from Senegal, Guinea, Ethiopia… These people have strong claims in their home countries. Under normal asylum law, they only have to show a 10% chance of persecution in their home country. But then they show up for their first master calendar hearing, and the DHS attorney moves to pretermit based on ‘safe haven’ in Uganda, Honduras, Belize, Ecuador.”
Now, instead of demonstrating a reasonable possibility of persecution in their home country, applicants must prove a greater than 50% chance of persecution in a third country to which they often have no connection.
“It’s just absurd. These people have no connection to these countries… You spend 3–4 years sitting down with and preparing someone, you show up to the first [hearing], DHS moves to pretermit, and the judge’s hands are tied… It’s really demoralizing to spend that much time with a client and not have a chance at all to present the claim.”
Long Backlogs, Endless Waiting
Beyond the courtroom, immigration processes have slowed to a near standstill. “I used to get tons of mail every day… cases were moving along. Now it’s just not happening.”
Affirmative asylum cases have been paused. Clients from nearly 70 countries have found their immigration processes frozen. Some have already paid fees, attended interviews, and qualified to immigrate—only to have their move placed on indefinite hold.
U visa applicants, survivors of crime who assist law enforcement in the prosecution of that crime, face a backlog of nearly 400,000 cases, with only 10,000 visas granted per fiscal year due to a longstanding Congressional cap. Some survivors will wait 10 to 15 years to receive their status.
“It’s been an awful period in the last few years,” TJ admits. “I dread coming into work sometimes, not knowing what to expect… but I’m happy to be here rather than a private law firm right now.”
Walking with Clients, Start to Finish
What sustains TJ is ILJNY’s model. Unlike high-volume private firms where attorneys may meet asylum clients for the first time at a hearing, ILJNY’s approach is relational and long-term.
“A lot of private attorneys walk in for the first time on an asylum case, and they’ve never met that person except for that day because their partner prepped the case. They have no rapport with the client, no background on the claim. It’s very awkward.”
JFON attorneys follow cases as far as they can – sometimes, even to federal court. They build history with their clients and earn trust.
“We maintain a real history with our clients and have a really good rapport. They feel comfortable with us.”
Despite the mounting challenges, TJ has also had some recent victories.
A few days ago, a client arrived to pick up her green card, which was approved under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) provision that allows the spouse of an abusive US citizen or green card holder to petition for their own status.
Another client, who was applying for citizenship, feared being picked up by ICE due to a past criminal history. TJ prepared a 250-page legal brief arguing good moral character, and worked to have a previous charge reduced so that it would not have immigration consequences. His citizenship was approved this week, and he will be sworn in next month.
Although TJ admits to sometimes having mixed feelings, he believes that everyone deserves a second chance. “He’s shown a lot of remorse, joined the military, and is in a DWI program.”
A Calling Formed Early
TJ’s path to immigration law was formed while he was an undergraduate at Georgetown University, where he volunteered through the Center for Immigration Policy and Refugee Assistance to tutor Central American youth in Washington, D.C.
“I was assigned [a young man] to tutor, and then it just turned into playing soccer.”
That same program offered an internship with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), working with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). TJ applied for the program and was sent to Costa Rica, where he worked for a year assisting with refugee resettlement.
He helped resettle Nicaraguans and Cubans into camps in Costa Rica—sometimes traveling by Jeep, boat, or small plane to reach people who had just crossed the border. One experience in particular was formative for him: assisting a group of Miskito Indians displaced by conflict in Nicaragua to resettle in a camp designed to replicate their coastal home.
“It was one of the most fulfilling experiences… that galvanized me. I knew I wanted to go back there.”
He briefly considered the Peace Corps but realized he could have greater impact by going to law school.
After law school, he clerked for immigration judges in Louisiana and San Diego. He later joined the Los Angeles Asylum Office, before transferring to New York because of his involvement in a whistleblower action related to refugee adjudications in Haiti.
For TJ, working inside government was illuminating and disillusioning.
“It was a fight every day with your supervisor – they’d want to reject your decisions [to grant asylum], and you’d get a pile of cases on your desk asking you to change your decision. I would never do that. Instead, I’d go to headquarters and protest: ‘this is what they’re trying to make me do.’ In some ways, this drama made it tolerable to work there because I felt like I was accomplishing things within the belly of the beast.”
By 2000, he was ready to leave. “I took the first job I was offered, which was with NY JFON, basically sight unseen.”
A Ministry of Justice
The New York JFON program began in 1999 under the immigrant refugee ministry of the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR). The founding vision was simple: churches must do more to stand with the undocumented.
From the first clinics at John Wesley and Chinatown, the program expanded to Yonkers and Hicksville. TJ has moved offices in the building nearly ten times over the years. He has helped shape the program from its earliest days.
There have been extraordinary moments—like traveling to Guam at the request of Church World Service to assist nearly 1,000 Burmese refugees who arrived in Guam on a 15-day visa waiver. All except one were granted asylum, and the one person whose case was denied won on appeal in the Ninth Circuit.
While working at ILJNY, TJ has had opportunities to go on UNHCR sabbaticals in Egypt and Mexico, where he supervised refugee interviews and trained officers in asylum law.
“It was fascinating being part of that program. At the time, not a lot of refugees were going to Mexico; it was a “passover” country. Now, many people have decided they’re not going to make it to the US, [so the number of people claiming asylum in Mexico has surged].
“They would send me on circuit rides where I would train younger UNHCR officers on refugee law. Traveling around Mexico like that was really insightful, because it gives me perspective [on the situation] today.”
A Call to Stand With Us
At a time when immigration law grows more complex and more punitive, when systems stall and backlogs stretch for years, the work of nonprofit immigration attorneys is indispensable.
Their work is done not for profit, but out of love and solidarity. It is sustained not by billable hours, but by a commitment to justice.
If you believe in justice-oriented advocacy – if you believe that immigrants deserve skilled representation, safe spaces, and someone who will not give up – consider donating to the work of Immigration Law and Justice NY.