Neighbors Link Partners With Pace Community Law Practice To Expand Services

From Neighbors Link: Neighbors Link recently merged Pace Community Law Practice (PCLP) into their organization as one of the several services they now offer to their clients. This will be perhaps the most vital service they could provide given the current climate and uncertainty around issues of immigration. Lead attorneys, Karin Anderson Ponzer, Esq. and Elizabeth Mastropolo, Esq. will become Neighbors Link staff. Over the course of providing legal services to immigrants, Ms. Anderson Ponzer and Ms. Mastropolo have become experts on cases involving unaccompanied minors; an area of the law in which expertise is still critically needed due to the large numbers of children continuing to arrive in Westchester County from Latin and Central America.

The new service will operate under the name, Neighbors Link Community Law Practice.

Neighbors Link has partnered with PCLP since 2014, with PCLP completing applications for US naturalization and deferred action as well as a variety of other immigration services during the legal clinics offered every Friday in its Mount Kisco facility. Neighbors Link coordinated with PCLP to provide an attorney and translator on-site and supported them with outreach in the community, setting up appointments, and providing office space, office equipment, and Internet access.

The partnership between Neighbors Link and PCLP has been very successful: Over the past 2 ½ years, PCLP conducted initial consultations at Neighbors Link with over 250 people seeking legal assistance; most of those cases were immigration matters. The consultations ranged from general inquiries to specific cases about a variety of immigration issues including: family based petitions, visas, travel documents, asylum, and renewal of Legal Permanent Resident Cards (LPR). In addition, PCLP helped with 30 urgent cases to defend people who were being deported. Particularly heartbreaking are 12-15 cases a year in which PCLP defended children who qualify for “Special Immigrant Juvenile (SIJ)” status. SIJ status, according to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services Division of Homeland Security, is an immigration classification that may allow for these vulnerable children to immediately apply for lawful permanent resident status (“LPR” status or a “Green Card”).

In 2016 Neighbors Link was awarded a contract from the New York State Office for New Americans which includes providing free legal services for immigrants who wish to apply for citizenship if they are “Legal Permanent Residents (LPR)” or eligible for “Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). Carola Bracco, executive director of Neighbors Link said of the new partnership, “We are excited about expanding our legal services to integrate with and support Neighbors Link’s overall operations and mission to strengthen the whole community by actively enhancing the healthy integration of immigrants.” Attorney, Karin Anderson Ponzer said, “Elizabeth Mastropolo and I are excited to build upon the proven track record of results between PCLP and Neighbors Link. There is a tremendous need for quality legal services to the immigrant community in Westchester and we are here to provide it.”

Images Courtesy Of Neighbor Link