What you should know
- New York City will offer assistance to thousands of migrants in their process of completing and submitting asylum applications, Mayor Eric Adams announced Tuesday. Help will be provided through the Asylum Seeker Assistance Center located at the Great American Red Cross Midtown Manhattan headquarters.
- Interested asylum seekers will schedule a one-on-one appointment at the application support center, where trained application assistants will work with the applicant to answer questions. Experienced immigration attorneys will be on-site to supervise application assistants and provide guidance, and interpreters will be on-site to provide in-person language assistance.
- In the coming weeks, the other support services offered at the Asylum Seeker Resource Navigation Center, which currently operates out of American Red Cross headquarters in Greater New York, will transition to the Asylum Seeker Arrival Center. City asylum based in the Roosevelt Hotel.
NEW YORK — New York City will offer assistance to thousands of migrants as they complete and submit asylum applications, Mayor Eric Adams announced Tuesday. Help will be provided through the Asylum Seeker Assistance Center located at the Great American Red Cross Midtown Manhattan headquarters.
This seeks to go one step further so that migrants can qualify for a work permit.
The center will open in the coming weeks in consultation with immigration legal service providers and initial pro bono support from the law firms Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP; Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP; Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP; and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP.
“Throughout this crisis, New York City has led the nation in answering the call to support incoming asylum seekers, and we are doing it again,” said Mayor Adams. “The Asylum Claims Help Center will help New York City asylum seekers through the complex federal immigration process, moving them one step closer to qualifying for work authorization and the ability to support themselves. We must act quickly to ensure the well-being of the thousands of migrants whose deadline to apply for asylum is fast approaching, and this center will help us do it.
How will the help work in the center?
Interested asylum seekers will schedule a one-on-one appointment at the application support center, where trained application assistants will work with the applicant to answer questions. Experienced immigration attorneys will be on-site to supervise application assistants and provide guidance, and interpreters will be on-site to provide in-person language assistance.
What will be the opening hours?
The Asylum Claims Assistance Center will operate Monday through Friday from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm at the American Red Cross headquarters in the New York metropolitan area in Midtown Manhattan by appointment only.
What will happen to the other services provided at the Red Cross Center?
In the coming weeks, the other support services offered at the Asylum Seeker Resource Navigation Center, which currently operates out of American Red Cross headquarters in Greater New York, will transition to the Asylum Seeker Arrival Center. City asylum based in the Roosevelt Hotel. These services include enrollment in New York City Department of Education schools, enrollment in fair fees, IDNYC, enrollment in health insurance, and access to mental health counseling.
Since the humanitarian crisis began, New York City has opened a total of 175 emergency sites to provide shelter for asylum seekers, including an additional 11 large-scale humanitarian aid centers.
I would like to work in the center to help asylum seekers. How do I do it?
Mayor Adams also encouraged New Yorkers interested in working at the Asylum Claims Assistance Center to apply immediately.
“I encourage New Yorkers to join this unprecedented effort by applying today to work at our center,” the mayor said.
