Need immigration help?
Want to find out what steps to take to become an American citizen?
Curious to know what legal options you might have in order to stay in the U.S.?
Organizers of the Daily News/CUNY Citizenship NOW! immigration call-in are prepared to help thousands of immigrants with these questions and more during a free helpline starting April 27.
The 13th annual call-in, giving confidential citizenship and immigration information, is running from April 27 to May 1.
Phones and TTY/TTD lines for the hearing impaired will be open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Hundreds of volunteers — including lawyers, paralegals and law students — are expected to participate in this year’s call-in, answering phones in English, Spanish, and a host of other languages, including Haitian Creole, Bengali and Arabic.
The hotline will be headquartered at Stella and Charles Guttman Community College in midtown Manhattan.
Attorney and Baruch College Prof. Allan Wernick, who runs the immigration legal services program at CUNY and writes a twice-weekly immigration column in the Daily News, is readying volunteers to help people with questions about an immigration topic that is hot this spring: deferred action.
Last fall, President Obama announced a new program giving deportation reprieves and work permits to undocumented parents of U.S. citizens. He also expanded an existing program for young immigrants who came to this country as kids. However, a federal judge put the new programs on hold amid a court battle.
“We think we’re going to get a lot of calls about that issue. We’re making a special effort to prepare people to answer those questions,” said Wernick.
Most calls to the hotline each year come from green card holders who want to take the step to become a U.S. citizen — but the volunteers end up helping people with many different immigration issues. Last year, a Filipino sailor who decided not to return to his ship called in. So did someone in the federal Witness Protection Program with visa issues.
Since the Citizenship NOW! call-in began, volunteers have helped more than 136,000 callers from New York City and around the country, organizers said.
The call-in numbers for the Citizenship NOW! Immigration hotline will be up and running on April 27:
Spanish – 646-746-9634
English – 646-746-9636
TTY – 212-221-2419
ON A MOBILE DEVICE? WATCH THE VIDEO HERE.
