The state of New Jersey is contributing more than $2 million to a variety of legal aid organizations to provide legal representation to state residents facing immigration issues.
Gov. Phil Murphy, pointing to the immigrants’ civil rights as well as their bearing on the state’s workforce and treasury, announced the award of $2.1 million in grants on Monday.
“Families who came to New Jersey for a better life do not deserve to be torn apart by the federal government’s cruel and discriminatory policies,” Murphy said in a statement. “Deportation is one of the harshest consequences an individual can face under U.S. law, yet most immigrants do not have the right to appointed counsel and many cannot afford an attorney.”
Murphy added that the funding is intended for “critical legal representation to low-income residents who are detained and facing deportation … and have no one to defend their rights.”
The $2.1 million pledge consists of: $925,000 each to Legal Services of New Jersey and the American Friends Service Committee, and $250,000 for legal clinics at Rutgers Law School and Seton Hall University School of Law that provide representation to immigrants.
Treasurer Elizabeth Muoio said in a statement: “Providing access to counsel helps ensure due process and just treatment for immigrants while enduring the efficient administration of our legal system, which can dramatically reduce the taxpayer costs associated with detention.”
The administration cited statistics from the American Immigration Council, which said immigrant-led households in New Jersey paid about $6.5 billion in state and federal taxes in 2014 and possessed about $54.6 billion in spending power.
The announcement also pointed to a council statistic saying that undocumented aliens made up about 7.9 percent of the state’s workforce in 2014 and paid about $587.4 million in state and local taxes. The administration claims that if New Jersey’s undocumented immigrants were granted legal status, those tax contributions could rise to more than $660 million.
LSNJ “has extensive experience in handling these cases,” organization president Melville Miller Jr. said. “In just the couple of weeks since the grant was signed, we have been able to bring aboard a full complement of terrific new staff who will provide the representation.”
He added that those who can’t afford counsel “will be financially eligible for representation, and those who seek assistance will receive a full assessment of their legal claims and specific advice concerning their legal rights. Those with meritorious claims and defenses will have the options of representation during the adjudicatory process.”
Nicole Miller, the legal services director for the AFSC, said: “A publicly funded legal representation program for immigrant detainees is critical to protect the due process rights of longtime New Jersey residents … who would be devastated by their detention.”
interesting. so illegals pay 10 billion in taxes every year in this country, but 6 billion of that is from new jersey