(New York, NY) – The Legal Aid Society, Brooklyn Defender Services, and The Bronx Defenders – New York City’s defender organizations providing free legal representation to detained immigrants through the New York Immigrant Family Unity Project (NYIFUP) – today delivered ​testimony before the New York City Council Committee on Immigration’s oversight hearing on the human rights violations and impact of COVID-19 on immigration detention centers in New York. Additionally, NYIFUP clients who are currently or have been detained in ICE facilities delivered testimony (available below).

NYIFUP providers detailed the inhumane conditions and abuses that incarcerated clients are routinely subjected to, highlighting egregious procedural and medical neglect by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and jail officials in their failure to adequately address COVID-19 and protect incarcerated individuals in their custody. Providers also described a culture of pervasive racism and xenophobia by New York county jails that contract with ICE, and significant limitations to access to counsel and due process violations, among many other issues.

View full press release here.