Mayor Eric Adams is tapping New York’s college students to assist thousands of migrants with their asylum claims, The Post has learned.
Adams’s office plans on announcing a partnership with NYU, Columbia University School of Social Work and City University of New York campuses including Hunter College’s School of Social Work to help migrants navigate the complicated process, sources familiar with the program said.
“There is tremendous talent in the student bodies of both the public and private colleges. There are students who are multilingual and they’re used to taking exams and filling out applications,” a source familiar with the plan said.
“Helping migrants navigate a complex process of applying for asylum is a no-brainer. Students can be a valuable resource.”
Students are expected to get credit for performing the clinical work on behalf of migrants, sources said.
CUNY already operates a Citizenship Now! program — touted as the largest university legal assistance program in the nation providing free and confidential citizenship and immigration law services to immigrants.
The mayor’s office had no immediate comment.
But New York University Interim Provost Georgina Dopico is expected to be at City Hall’s Wednesday briefing on the migrant crisis.
The Post previously reported that lawyers at some of the city’s top white shoe law firms will offer pro bono legal help to migrants file asylum claims through the city’s new “Asylum Application Help Center.”
Still, filing an application for asylum does not mean it will be reviewed any time soon.
There is a massive backlog in the New York City immigration courts for asylum cases that could take years to be resolved.
In May, The Post reported that at least 127,000 pending cases were mired in court and the unrelenting influx of migrants will likely cause that number to exponentially grow.
More than 93,000 migrants have arrived in New York City over the past year and more than 54,000 are in the Big Apple’s overwhelmed shelter system.
Some migrants have been sleeping outside the booked 1,000 bed Roosevelt hotel — which has been converted into an emergency shelter.
The mayor has imposed a 60-day limit on stays and is even considering setting up encampments at Randall’s Island soccer fields and using other city parks such as Calvert Vaux in southern Brooklyn on an emergency basis to address the overflow.
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