They had made their way to the Bronx from Ecuador, Western Sahara, and Ghana.
And Fordham University was there to help them.
More than a dozen students from across Fordham’s schools—including the Law School and the Gabelli School of Business—as well as faculty members and staff served as preparers, interpreters, and general support volunteers to help 27 asylum seekers from eight countries with their asylum applications at a pop-up clinic.
The project is part of an ongoing partnership between the Feerick Center for Social Justice’s Immigrant Justice Project and the New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG).
Held in early November on the Fordham University’s Rose Hill campus, it was the first time the joint asylum application clinic to help “new New Yorkers” was expanded to include graduate and undergraduate volunteers from throughout the wider University community.
“Advocacy and service lie at the heart of legal scholarship,” said law student Chris Hayes ’26. “As legal scholars we have a duty to aid those who are without the resources needed to traverse complex and intimidating legal systems. Seeing the diverse multitude of asylum seekers who arrive at the clinic, and hearing their stories first hand, has been an illuminating and humbling experience that further highlights the unrelenting need for work in this [area].”
(L-R) Dora Galacatos ’96, Chris Hayes ’26, Clementine Schillings, and Kathleen Maloney
The growing number of migrants seeking asylum and arriving in New York City is unprecedented in modern times. As of Oct. 1, New York City had 63,000 people seeking asylum in its care, and more than 122,500 had come through the City’s shelter system since the spring of 2022, according to the City’s Comptroller Office.
Dora Galacatos, the Feerick Center’s Executive Director, said, “We are deeply grateful for the support of the University administration, and especially the team at the Career Center, for hosting the clinic at the Joseph M. McShane S.J. Campus Center. We are also privileged to collaborate with the extraordinary immigration experts at New York Legal Assistance Group. Most of all, we thank our volunteers. This limited-scope legal service can be challenging and draining, but it is also rewarding to know that our collective efforts have the potential to be life changing.”
The clinic helped applicants complete their I-589 forms, which are used to apply for asylum in the U.S. and for withholding of removal (formerly called “withholding of deportation”) and must be filed within one year of an individual’s arrival in the country.
Hayes served as a Spanish-to-English asylum application preparer at the clinic. He called the day-long initiative an “impact opportunity to represent marginalized global communities” and a way for students to “build cultural bridges and make lasting, positive impacts on people’s lives.”
Sonia Montejano ’24 reviews an I-589 form.
Law student Sonia Montejano ’24, who also volunteered as an application preparer, echoed her classmate’s sentiments. She shared that she interviewed a client about her story and the basis for asylum and worked with her complete and file the I-589 application—“the critical first step in a process that can take years,” according to Montejano—in order to ensure that her client could be as well-positioned as possible to eventually succeed on her claim.
“Asylum seekers in New York City have been through so much hardship in their home countries and during their long journey here, and they deserve better than the conditions they have been met with,” Montejano said. “Lending my language abilities and skills as a law student to the incredible efforts of NYLAG and the Feerick Center is one small way I can help alleviate the crisis and make a difference for newly arrived immigrants.”
The Feerick Center hopes to hold a similar pop-up clinic during the spring 2024 semester. For more information or to become a future volunteer, contact Emerson Argueta, Feerick Center Associate Director, at eargueta2@fordham.edu.
