Criminal Justice New York State Immigration

State Legislature Proposes Major Boost to Immigrant Legal Services

The governor and legislature are negotiating over immigration legislation outside of the budget process.

Liv Veazey · March 11, 2026

| Kevin P. Coughlin/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul; NYS Senate Media Services; AlfSnaiper/Getty Images

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The state legislature is proposing a major increase in funding to help immigrants defend themselves in court amid President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign. The state Senate and Assembly each proposed a budget increase of $110.8 million to fund immigrant services, primarily legal assistance. But their proposals leave unresolved how far the state is willing to go to shield immigrants from federal enforcement.

The immigrant services funding boost would more than double last year’s allocation, bringing the total to $183 million. It would allow legal services providers to significantly increase the number of people they’re able to represent in immigration court.

“This is nation-leading funding,” said Kelsey Pirnak, advocacy manager for the Vera Institute of Justice. The money could pave the way for New York to pass legislation to give immigrants a right to legal representation, as exists in criminal court, Pirnak said.

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In her budget proposal, Governor Kathy Hochul proposed a more modest $72.4 million for legal services, case management, and job readiness programs for immigrants — the same amount included in last year’s enacted budget. Last year, the governor’s initial offer was just over $42 million; this year’s higher opening number might suggest she is willing to budge further.

If the legislature’s plan is adopted, it would strengthen initiatives like the New York Immigrant Family Unity Project, which provides free legal representation to immigrants in detention, and expand access to emergency deportation defense and social services at a time when arrests and detention of immigrants are skyrocketing.

While advocates, service providers, and legislators cheered the proposed funding increase, the future of state immigration policy remains uncertain. The New York For All Act, landmark sanctuary legislation backed by Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins that would prohibit local law enforcement from collaborating with ICE, doesn’t appear in any of the three budget proposals currently on the table.

Instead, legislative leaders are in private negotiations with the governor over sanctuary policy. “We are really trying to get as close as possible to New York for All,” Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins told reporters on Tuesday.

“I don’t think there’s a huge difference” between the governor and the Senate’s stances, Stewart-Cousins said, but “the conversations frankly are beginning in earnest now, so it would be premature to say.” It’s unclear how long leaders will take to come to an agreement.

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Governor Hochul, who has opposed comprehensive sanctuary legislation in the past and separately proposed banning formal agreements between police and ICE, included two immigration-related policy proposals in her executive budget: one that reiterates that “sensitive locations” such as churches, schools, and hospitals can deny entry to federal officers who don’t have a judicial warrant, and another that allows people to sue federal agents who have allegedly violated their constitutional rights.

These policy changes were intentionally omitted from the Assembly and Senate budget proposals, with the Senate noting in their proposal that they’re prepared to “advance comprehensive solutions outside of the budget process.”

Still, the delay is frustrating some advocates who see New York for All as the most urgent political battle around immigration. “We’ve heard time and time again from the legislature that they want to do something,” said Linda Flor Brito, senior policy and campaigns organizer at the Immigrant Defense Project. “That should be the most immediate concern.”