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Stop Funding the ‘Rights for Migrants’ Legal Scam

As a record number of migrants invade the U.S., wreaking pain on New York City and other communities, one group is winning big-time: the public advocacy lawyers. Their business is to constantly sue to win more so-called rights for migrants. Rights to shelter, rights to meals, rights to health care, even the right to vote in local elections.

Who pays the bills on both sides of these lawsuits? You do. Taxpayer money largely funds these legal combatants, which include the Coalition for the Homeless, Legal Aid Society, and Vera Institute of Justice.

You’re paying to be legally coerced into providing more for migrants, even at the cost of cutting vital city services — kind of like hiring your own assassin. It’s absurd, but it’s about to get worse.

On Dec. 14, the New York City Council passed Resolution 556, calling on the state legislature to guarantee, as a right, that all migrants have lawyers paid for by taxpayers when they go to immigration court. It would be a “first-in-the-nation” guarantee.

Resolution 556 would give migrants more rights than American citizens have. No one else is guaranteed a publicly funded lawyer in civil court matters such as housing court issues or divorce.

Yikes, the city council’s proposal would make the Big Apple even more of a magnet for migrants than it already is.

Who’s behind this push? The Vera Institute of Justice, for one.

Vera claims we “need a federally funded universal legal defense service” for migrants. In short, a national army of left-wing lawyers paid by you. What better place to launch this lunatic idea than at the New York City Council?

The Vera Institute is not the only organization cashing in on migrants’ rights.

In October, Mayor Eric Adams went to court for temporary relief from the rigid rules and settlements that define what the city must provide the homeless, as tens of thousands of homeless migrants arrive. Immediately, the Legal Aid Society and the Coalition for the Homeless swooped in, claiming his plan would “gut” the long-standing rights of the homeless.

These lawsuits are largely funded by you, through grants and contracts from the city and state. Manhattan Judge Gerald Lebovits urged the parties to compromise, and arranged for the lawyers on all sides, representing the city, the state and the migrants, to meet in his chambers several times.

This scam is being repeated all over the nation. The Justice Action Center — also publicly funded — is suing the Biden administration on behalf of Haitian asylum seekers whose rights it claims were violated by U.S. Border Patrol Agents on horseback trying to stop them as they crossed the Rio Grande. Lawyers for the migrants and lawyers for the Biden administration will cross swords. Never mind who wins. They’re all being paid by us.

It’s a free country. Anyone can sue. But why should we be paying for these legal boxing matches?

Disgraced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo wrote on these pages last week that the remedy for New York City’s mounting woes is to sue the federal government for more money. Wrong. That would send more wasted funds down the litigation rathole.

Cuomo also argues that the “right to shelter” should apply to all the counties, instead of just Gotham, and that state lawmakers should “fairly distribute” the migrant burden statewide. Spoken like a pol who is eyeing a city position and no longer cares about the rest of the state.

The notion that there is a “right to shelter” in the state Constitution was concocted by the Coalition for the Homeless in a lawsuit in 1981. It has tied the hands of city leaders ever since. It should be legally challenged. Extending that questionable right to migrants who just arrived here, and then imposing it statewide, would compound the wrong.

Tell lawmakers to stop funding the legal advocacy industry with our money. It’s time to break the stranglehold these publicly funded lawyers, under the guise of doing good, have on our city and nation.

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One Comment

  1. There should be no “rights” for illegals because well, they are here illegally. The estimated cost is 150 to 200 billion dollars EACH year of illegals entering our country to pay for their housing, their medical, their children’s education and even for the jails for the thousands that we manage to catch committing crimes. That cost will only increase exponentially as the illegals will be having children at 3 to 4 times the rate of our homegrown population. it’s always been about the votes and the Democrats’ belief that the illegals will keep them in power in perpetuity. But they can’t vote you say?

    “Americans must also understand that 19 states and the District of Columbia issue driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants. Of those 19, all but two have “motor voter” laws that automatically register people to vote when they receive a driver’s license. All but one of those states permit people to vote without requiring photo identification. Eight conduct elections entirely by mail — which means no verification of voter identity. And even in some states where in-person voting takes place, election officials are not required to verify citizenship or other voting eligibility. Furthermore, almost half the states in the country (24) now permit “ballot harvesting,” meaning that someone other than the voter can collect and turn in his or her ballot.” Every citizen that gives a damn about the future of this country needs to be demanding election integrity; starting with a citizenship requirement, strict voter ID, no “ballot harvesting”, no drop boxes, in person voting and no absentee voting without a verifiable reason.

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