Take a look at this important article in New York Focus on an overlooked issue that is causing chaos and harm to immigrants throughout NYS. Again and again, African asylum seekers are seeing government attorneys file motions to pretermit to Uganda. This means that their asylum case would be thrown out without being heard and they would be ordered to be removed to a country they may have never been to before and a place where they might not be safe. Although this article focuses specifically on African asylum seekers, pretermission has impacted many people from various backgrounds.

Senior Attorney for the New York Legal Response Team at Neighbors Link, Melanie Zamenhof, talks in the article about the impact this is having on families seeking asylum as well as the dramatic increase in workload for attorneys serving these families.

This article reminds us that nobody should face this incredibly complex immigration system alone. We need to urgently pass the Access to Representation Act and make sure the final NYS enacted budget includes $175M for immigration legal services. Want to send a note in support of these policies? Visit: https://nyic.quorum.us/campaign/150730/

https://nysfocus.com/2026/03/18/ice-pretermissions-uganda-asylum-seekers

So grateful for this partnership!