How Nonprofits Can Protect Immigrant Clients
6.26.2025
Nonprofits need to stay on top of developments in immigration law as Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, arrests and deports more non-citizens.
The New York State Bar Association recently hosted a seminar focusing on the changes the administration has made to immigration enforcement, and how nonprofits can best protect their staff and the immigrant populations they serve. About 200 people attended.
The speakers were:
- Rose Cuison-Villazor, professor of law and chancellor’s Social Justice Scholar at Rutgers Law School.
- Michael de Freitas, attorney at William C. Moran & Associates and immediate past chair of the Business Law Section.
- Tracy Miller, counsel at Brach Eichler and past chair of the Health Law Section.
- William Wang, assistant attorney general in the Charities Bureau of the New York State Office of the Attorney General.
“This is an issue that every organization should be thinking about,” said Wang. “The leaders of your organization should know the rights and responsibilities of their organization and the people that they serve. If they do receive inquiries or visits from ICE, your organization should develop policies to deal with such situations.”
The speakers emphasized that it is important for nonprofits to train staff to know their rights to refuse entry and remain silent if ICE comes. It is also important to have a plan in place, with staff members and legal counsel who are designated to answer immigration inquiries.
“No board is going to have expertise needed in all situations,” said Wang. “So having lawyers, accountants and other professionals to consult with when that expertise is needed is very important.”
Cuison-Villazor explained that to enter private property, ICE needs a warrant signed by a judge. “It’s difficult to obtain a judicial warrant,” she said. “because an assistant U.S. attorney must go to a U.S. district judge – a magistrate – and explain the basis of the search.”
However, ICE can stop and arrest people in public areas with an administrative warrant, which is only issued by ICE personnel.
Religious institutions have an extra layer of protection as they can claim that ICE actions interfere with their right to exercise religion. On those grounds, a group of Quakers, Baptists and Sikhs filed a class action lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security. The lawsuit was successful, and the court issued an order prohibiting ICE enforcement at sensitive locations related to the groups’ places of worship and ministry.
A similar case, Pineros Y Campesinos Unidos Del Noreste v. Noem, is still pending.
While ICE previously was barred from operating in sensitive locations such as schools, hospitals, and places of worship, that guidance has been rescinded.
“There’s still some special status for protected areas, but at the same time, the bottom line is there is no longer a legal bar to enforcement in those areas,” said Miller. “It depends on the discretion of the ICE agents.”
The program was sponsored by the New York State Bar Association’s Business Law Section and Committee on Immigration Representation. View the full seminar here.
