Chair Encarnación questions $33M in legal services funding allocation

And are they currently in a contract cycle, and what year are they in most of these RFPs?

So I can start.

I don't know if you want me to walk you through the different programs that we have, but the legal support centers, they were part of an RFP that happened last year, and this is their first year of a three-year contract, so that's one bucket.

We have HRI partners that are in their renewal cycle now and are starting again this year, same contracted partners.

We have our immigrant rights workshop, same thing, as well as our hotline, which will continue with Catholic Charities, the rapid response to your collaborative.

The commissioner mentioned there was an enhancement there, but that contract is also moving forward.

Our English language support centers as well, those contracts continue.

I think I got all of them, but the only one I think that you can think of within the RFP cycle would be our legal support centers, which are locked into a three-year contract.

Got it.

Perfect.

Okay.

Speaking of immigration legal services, you know, we're very excited to see roughly 33 million

comprised of 11.6 million added in the prelim for legal support centers and 21.3 million added for the expansion of immigrant legal services baseline starting in fiscal 2027.

But there seemed to be, and there was no additional funding added in the executive plan.

So I wanted to know what exactly will this additional funding added in prelim be used for?

For example, which existing programs will be expanded?

Will there be new programs?

The additional funding is going to allow us to continue the current programming while also expanding key support initiatives that we know the immigrant New Yorkers are depending on.

As part of the funding that was baselined, we know that there is still a growing demand for immigration defense services.

The city increased in baseline.

funding for the RLC by $3 million.

You know, our understanding is that as we've engaged more with partners and organizations that maintaining the support and growing that support is important with the baseline funding.

I think having the continuity of service has been the biggest plus here.

And the other thing I want to uplift, especially when it comes to our rapid response legal collaborative work, is that

because of the fast-changing federal policies, it forces, and the changes in law as well, it forces the immigration attorneys to have to sort of chase all of those changes and be nimble.

And we're really proud that we were able to baseline some of this support, get additional resources in FY26 to make sure that they have what they need to actually be nimble in that space.

So it's an expansion.

It's not creating new programs.

Will any new programs be created?

No.

Yeah, we're absolutely looking forward to, you know, having those conversations in the foreseeable future about, you know, I think the biggest important thing for me has been, you know, we've mentioned meeting with all of our providers.

It was like a week-long marathon meeting of hundreds of providers specifically to understand

not just what the needs are, but like are the programs that we are currently administering having an impact in the communities and how are we measuring that?

So those conversations for future programming are important.

For us to have.

It just requires a little bit more community engagement and stakeholder input.

Yeah.

And so what specific immigration cases or clients is the $33 million anticipated to cover?

Sorry, I didn't grab that.

You said the $33 million?

Yes.

We're making significant investment in deportation defense.

MOIA is directing $14.6 million of that to go to the RLC, to our legal support centers, and to support New Yorkers who are facing deportation cases.

I think that level of investment really shows the urgency.

And my colleague just passed a note that we do want to uplift that there is additional resources that will be going to our habeas project.

And we can provide details on the breakdown of that.

Particular funding.

That would be very helpful.