In December, Daniel Paz said his sister and niece were hoping to leave to California to get help. They were looking for help with their immigration and permanent residency applications. And they’d heard California had more available resources than upstate New York.
But then, while boarding a plane on Dec. 26, 2025, they were detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at the Albany International Airport.
Paz detailed this story to WAMC through a Capital Region Sanctuary Coalition interpreter and used an alias for himself and family for fear of endangering their immigration status.
“My sister was not able to get an attorney and was ordered to be deported," he said. "She was afraid of all the raids that were happening here, and because of that she wanted to move somewhere else, after not getting the help she needed. And that’s what she was going to do, she was going to California to see if she could move there. And when she was getting on her flight in Albany airport, she was detained.”
Paz says after his sister and niece were detained, they were deported to Mexico within four days, without any access to legal representation to argue their case before an immigration court. They had been in the United States for two years, after leaving Mexico for fear of their safety. But now that they have been deported back, they are living there without any support.
“They don’t have any help, they just returned to the home where my mother is, but otherwise they have no other help," he said. "This is why I’m looking for a job now, to be able to send them money and be able to help, because right now, nobody is helping.”
Lauren DesRosiers, director of the Albany Law Immigration Clinic, said while there are organizations in the Capital Region that provide pro bono legal assistance, there aren’t enough to meet the existing need, especially as the Trump administration’s interpretation of rules for ICE detentions have changed since last year. Under a provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act, mandatory detention is a policy that gives ICE the authority to detain individuals who are deemed a national security risk or have been charged with criminal convictions. But DesRosiers says ICE has shifted the policy’s focus.
“Over the past couple of months, it’s gotten very, very chaotic," she said. "I think, particularly since the summer and when ICE has revised their detention priorities, [they] are detaining anybody who entered without inspection, [and] is now subject to mandatory detention. That has created a lot more risk for our clients who may have entered without inspection, as well as anybody across the United States, who now have to face potential detention by ICE for an indeterminate period of time.”
The funding that exists to support pro bono legal services is distributed across the state, but is concentrated in New York City, in particular, where most of New York State’s 4.5 million immigrants live. That’s according to a report from the American Immigration Council based on 2023 American Community Survey data. Some legal aid organizations get funded directly from the state budget, while others are supported by funding distributed through the Office of New Americans, which is an office of the New York Department of State created in 2012 to help provide English language training, legal aid services, and mental health support.
According to Guillermo Martinez, deputy director at the Institute on Immigrant Integration Research and Policy at the Rockefeller Institute of Government, SUNY, legal aid services have not evolved to meet the need for a growing immigrant population in upstate and western New York.
“There’s a huge growth in the immigrant communities, both because of refugees – we have western New York, Rochester, Syracuse, Utica, as traditional areas over the last 20 years where refugees have been resettled," he said. "Plus, you also have an affordability issue where a lot of immigrants can’t afford New York City anymore, and have gone to upstate New York where there’s more jobs, and housing is relatively more affordable.”
Liz Espinoza, a social worker and organizer with the Capital Region Sanctuary Coalition, says many families in the region are still driven to seek resources that are more accessible in the New York City area, where help like an immigration legal hotline exists.
“We don’t have anything remotely like that in upstate, let alone in Albany," she said. "I’ve lived in Albany for over 20 years, and am an immigrant, and I know that, during my time, I haven’t seen any growth in that area.”
The Albany Law Immigration Clinic is one of few legal aid organizations in the Capital Region funded directly through a state budget: in the 2025-2026 fiscal year, the clinic received $150,000 to support pro bono legal services for immigrants. DesRosiers says the funding allows them to represent immigrants who cannot afford to pay for representation, but legislation like the Access to Representation Act would bolster these efforts.
“I think more generally the Access to Representation Act would be a huge step forward, simply because it is expanding the amount of money that ONA would be able to share out with local service providers,” she said.
The Access to Representation Act, if passed and signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul, would invest $175 million to provide legal representation for immigrants. Advocates say this would guarantee due process for individuals in immigration proceedings. Hochul’s current proposed budget for the 2027 fiscal year includes $72 million for legal services distributed through the Office of New Americans.
In a statement to WAMC, Governor Hochul’s office said, "The Governor will review any legislation that passes both houses of the legislature."
Earlier this month, advocates from across New York held a rally at the Capitol in Albany, calling on Hochul to include the $175 million in her state budget proposal.
Dawedo Sanon, an organizer with the Columbia County Sanctuary Movement based in Hudson, says immigrants depend on legal representation to make sense of a system they do not always understand, and that the legislation would help to ensure a fair process.
“Everybody should have access to a lawyer, regardless of if they can afford it or not, a right to get a fair shot," she said. "So a lot of people who actually do have valid basis for their claims and valid fears for being sent back to their countries, they are actually sent back because they don't have that representation. They don't understand the laws. They're signing documents they don't know, there's no interpretation services really provided for them to understand what's really going on.”
Espinoza says the distribution of more funds for legal aid throughout the state could guarantee better outcomes.
“Sometimes, it is just legal representation to show that they actually have been trying to do the ‘right thing’ and have already begun a process," she said. "Even if they say they have, in detention, even if they show documentation, even if they show proof of ID that conveys that they have temporary status, permanent residency, what have you. Because they don’t have legal representation, they’re not being heard and they’re being sent back to their home country, sometimes to their peril.”
After Paz’s sister and niece were not able to obtain legal representation, Paz says he is worried about them in Mexico.
“They were good here, it’s sad to see that they took their dreams away, that they took their lives away here," he said. "They had dreams, and as a brother, it makes me especially sad to watch this being taken away from them and not being able to have this anymore.”
Correction: A previous version of this story had the incorrect title for Guillermo Martinez as the Deputy Director of the Institute on Immigrant Integration Research and Policy at the University at Albany. Martinez is the Deputy Director of the Institute on Immigrant Integration Research and Policy at the Rockefeller Institute of Government, State University of New York.
