On a Monday evening in January, the South Brooklyn sanctuary is packed with dozens of volunteers, translators and migrants. Migrants are asking a range of pressing questions: What does the new Trump administration mean for their ongoing asylum cases? How to fight an eviction order? And, in the worst case scenario, how to prepare for family separation?
They fear that as soon as President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated Monday, he will make good on his campaign promise by ordering mass evictions across the country. The 210,000 undocumented people who have arrived in New York since 2022 also face Mayor Eric Adams’ closure of the Floyd Bennett Field shelter, which houses 1,800 people, and his threats to roll back the city’s sanctuary policies by ignoring the opposition of the city council with a decree. The new Trump administration officials and Adams met to discuss deporting migrants who have committed crimes.
Emily Schectman, director of the South Brooklyn Sanctuary, said the organization is doing what it can to prepare for the uncertainty ahead. In recent weeks, 150 new volunteers have been registered and more are expected after the inauguration. “We anticipate that we will be doing a lot more work defending against deportations, monitoring ICE and fighting against family separation,” she said.
South Brooklyn Sanctuary is one of dozens of groups across the country that operate as a pro se community, teaching migrants to represent themselves “on their own behalf” before the legal system with the support of volunteers. The nonprofit has worked with more than 5,000 migrants since opening in 2022 with a pool of more than 100 trained and active volunteers. Last year alone, they helped 715 migrants fill out change of address forms so they wouldn’t miss their court dates and risk being deported.
Once in office, Trump promised to launch the “largest deportation program in American history,” send Congress a bill banning sanctuary cities, and request funds to hire and retain 10,000 new border agents. He also said he would limit federally funded benefits to only U.S. citizens and reinstate and expand the travel ban targeting majority-Muslim countries. In a December interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Trump said he had “no choice” but to deport millions of people and that “it’s costing us a fortune,” a claim disputed by economists.
To prepare for the work ahead, South Brooklyn Sanctuary is raising money to hire a full-time attorney and establishing a new program to help migrants file petitions to reopen their asylum cases, which may combat expulsion measures. It is also expanding into a new space this month, where it will train a new cohort of French- and Arabic-speaking volunteers to accommodate the growing number of migrants from African countries.
“Our promise to the community is that we will stay informed and prepared for any policy changes that arise,” she said.
Train volunteers to support migrants
Emelis, who asked that her last name not be used for fear of deportation, said she left Venezuela after being targeted by the military over her high school protests against the president authoritarian Nicolas Maduro.
The 26-year-old was almost out of time to seek asylum when she participated in South Brooklyn Sanctuary’s walk-in migration program at Good Shepherd Church in Bay Ridge; Asylum applications must be submitted within one year of the applicant’s date of arrival in the United States. With the help of volunteers, she completed her asylum and work permit forms just in time.
“I was scared when I arrived, but I received my work permit after just a month,” Emelis said.
South Brooklyn Sanctuary was founded following Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s decision to bus more than 27,300 migrants to New York, citing the need to ensure border security. More than 8 million migrants have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border since 2020 due to political repression, gang violence, poverty and natural disasters, with many settling in immigration centers in big cities that are struggling to quickly expand their safety net. Since 2024, the number of border crossings and arrivals of new migrants in New York and other major metropolitan centers have declined.
In Brooklyn, Juan Carlos Ruiz, pastor of the Church of the Good Shepherd, and residents welcomed their new neighbors with a weekly drop-in program that included immigration information, hot food and clothing . They quickly realized that what migrants also needed was to know their rights.
At the time, New York City’s legal clinics were overwhelmed by the influx of migrants struggling to find free legal representation. Other cities saw the same thing. The Migrant Solidarity Mutual Aid Network in Washington, D.C., and Mountain Dreamers in Frisco, Colorado, are just two of many organizations created in the absence of local government and nonprofit services that help migrants complete their aid applications. asylum and work authorization.
In New York, the city’s official asylum center imposes strict restrictions on who can schedule an asylum appointment: migrants must be housed in the city’s shelter system, eligible for a work authorization and not have been in the country for more than 11 months. Meanwhile, many migrants who appear in immigration court are unprepared and often show up without legal representation. Nearly 44 percent of immigrants in New York state struggle alone, Schectman said, and many don’t speak English, know their rights or have any legal training.
“In the absence of attorney capacity, we want a strong pro se community that can fill this justice gap,” Schectman said.
Preparing for upcoming political changes
Maria Meneses, 45, is an asylum seeker herself and began volunteering with the South Brooklyn Sanctuary last summer to share the advice that had once been helpful to her.
She sits down with the asylum seekers and tells them that she understands the trauma they carry within them. Meneses asks them for any evidence of violence or abuse to strengthen their case. “I tell them it may seem embarrassing, but it’s important to show what happened to you,” she said.
Meneses stressed the importance of asylum seekers naming the specific gang that threatened them and the cities in which they operate. “Due to high levels of corruption, many of these gangs are serious economic and political operations rooted in the government,” she said. “You can make the argument that resisting them leads to government persecution. »
Meneses said that while her personal experience makes her an effective volunteer, it can also cost her. “These families have put all their dreams into the asylum process,” she said. “They are forced to tell about the most terrible things that happened to them and why they left everything behind. »
But seeing the number of volunteers at the South Brooklyn Sanctuary more than double in the last three months gives her hope. “It’s inspiring to see how New Yorkers are coming forward to support their community,” she said.
For now, Emelis is building her life in New York. After obtaining a work permit in 2023, she found a job as a home helper in a temp agency. She can spend time with her son and brothers after her evening work. “All I want is to give my son a better future here,” she said.
