UWS Legal Clinic Helps Asylum Seekers Navigate Difficult Process

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY – Applying for asylum isn’t easy: the application is difficult to navigate, dense, and demanding, especially for those whose native language isn’t English. And the stakes couldn’t be higher: if an application is denied, asylum seekers face the immediate possibility of being sent back to the very dangers they fled.

“Every time somebody finishes an application, the supervising attorney announces it to the room and we all clap,” explained Sherri Levine, program manager at the Asylum Support Clinic (ASC), a volunteer-driven pro se legal clinic located on the Upper West Side.

Operating out of Rutgers Presbyterian Church, at 73rd Street and Broadway, ASC helps individuals navigate the complex and often overwhelming process of applying for asylum in the United States.

“It is very hard for an asylum seeker to do this on their own,” Levine said. “The process is very complicated, all in English, and you must submit an application within one year of [entering the United States]. That is a very high bar for an asylum seeker who has fled persecution in their home country, doing this while they're trying to survive day to day.”

How ASC Works

About 60 volunteers support each “cycle” of 16 applicants. Although the clinic is pro se – meaning asylum seekers are not represented by an attorney in the formal legal sense – volunteer attorneys are on hand to provide guidance. Others – document drafters – help prepare paperwork, interpreters bridge language barriers, and another team provides childcare for children who accompany their parents.

Since the fall of 2022, the clinic has assisted 210 asylum seekers from 13 different countries.
It’s too early to tell how successful applicants assisted by ASC are – the process can take years – but 150 days after an asylum seeker has submitted their paperwork, they become eligible to apply for work authorization, a step that ASC also supports.

Who’s Eligible?

“It’s not walk-in for either asylum seekers or volunteers, everybody needs to fill out a form,” Levine said.

ASC must have volunteer interpreters who support an applicant’s language, for example. Dates must align – recall that asylum seekers need to apply within a year of entering the United States – and ASC can’t help an applicant who must submit an application prior to the conclusion of one of its cycles. Applicants must also have a basis to seek asylum.

“We often get referrals from the people we help – probably half of our referrals come from word of mouth,” Levine said. “The other half come from a variety of organizations who are either providing similar services or who are connected to a shelter in the neighborhood.”

As of this summer, there were 8 migrant shelters on the Upper West Side.

Why ASC?

Despite the robust ecosystem of organizations that provide support to asylum seekers in New York City, the need is overwhelming, according to Levine.

“There’s just not enough,” she said. “There's a constant gap of people to help [asylum seekers] apply for asylum, even though there are lots of organizations in this general arena supporting immigrants and asylum seekers in all these different ways.”

Thus, ASC.

And it isn’t just Upper West Siders who are involved. In fact, Levine herself lives in Brooklyn.

“I've always done public interest and public service work, and I saw the opportunity at a time when I was available. I thought that the idea of being able to help organize the clinic and help very vulnerable people apply for asylum and work authorization would be meaningful and impactful, and so here I am,” she said.

For more information about ASC, including how to volunteer, visit their website.