About PSPP
Who Are We?
The Pro Se Plus Project is a collaboration of immigration legal services providers – Catholic Migration Services (CMS), Central American Legal Assistance (CALA), the New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG), and UnLocal – and community based organizations – African Communities Together (ACT), South Brooklyn Sanctuary (SBS), and Masa – created to address some of the legal needs of newly-arrived immigrants to New York City.
Recent migration trends have highlighted a reality our communities have felt for years: there are simply not enough immigration legal providers to meet the need for representation or even for legal information.
The Pro Se Plus Project (PSPP) provides thorough legal orientations, robust screenings, triage, and community access to pro se assistance with applications for asylum, employment authorization, immigration court motions, and other immigration-related relief for unrepresented immigrants. While full representation remains essential, PSPP works with lawyers as well as non-lawyers, volunteers, and interns with meaningful training and supervision to provide pro se assistance, fill critical gaps in services, and meet the emergent needs of our communities.
Why Was PSPP created?
PSPP was founded to address this stark reality with a community-based model, advising asylum seekers on their legal rights, assisting them in preparing and filing asylum applications in court, and empowering them to represent themselves in immigration hearings. This type of innovative, responsive approach is what our city needs to immediately meet immigrants’ urgent needs.
Our services
PSPP creates and delivers community education workshops explaining US immigration, eligibility requirements for asylum and work authorization, application and filing procedures before USCIS and immigration court, evidence packets, and preparation for interviews and court hearings.
PSPP trains community volunteers, non-profit partners, and pro bono attorneys to understand the requirements for asylum, work authorization, and more to increase capacity to assist recently arrived immigrants.
PSPP screens and triages newly arrived immigrants, provides legal advice, and directs them to community education workshops, accessible multilingual public education materials, and pro se application assistance clinics.
PSPP designs and hosts pro se clinics for recently arrived immigrants without legal representation to receive assistance in completing and filing their own asylum and work authorization applications, among other supports.
PSPP raises awareness among the recently arrived immigrant community to help people steer clear of notary fraud, scam, and being overcharged for desperately needed services. PSPP also helps people avoid adverse outcomes in immigration court such as in absentia removal orders (in one’s absence, when one does not attend their immigration court hearing), and missed deadlines.
Our Partners
African Communities Together is an organization of African immigrants fighting for civil rights, opportunity, and a better life for our families here in the U.S. and worldwide. ACT empowers African immigrants to integrate socially, advance economically, and engage civically. We connect African immigrants to critical services, help Africans develop as leaders, and organize our communities on the issues that matter.
Catholic Migration Services (CMS) is a not-for-profit legal services provider affiliated with Catholic Charities of Brooklyn and Queens. CMS provides free legal services and community education to low-income New York City residents in the areas of immigration, housing, and employment law, regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, national origin, or immigration status. CMS seeks to empower immigrant communities to assert their basic rights and to access effective and culturally appropriate legal representation.
Central American Legal Assistance (CALA) provides free or low-cost legal services to New York’s immigrant community. Our mission is to protect and defend Central and South American asylum-seekers and to expand the civil rights of all immigrants. Based in a Brooklyn church, CALA offers immigrants a home base for advice or counsel as well as legal representation.
Masa partners with Mexican and Latin American children, youth, and families in the South Bronx to develop strong learners and leaders who fully contribute to the larger community. We envision a community that is civically engaged, empowered, and educated. Masa fosters a culturally responsive learning community in which families engage with direct service and advocacy programs to dismantle barriers to success.
New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG)
NYLAG is a leading civil legal services organization combating economic, racial, and social injustice by advocating for people experiencing poverty or in crisis. Our services include comprehensive, free civil legal services, financial empowerment, impact litigation, policy advocacy, and community partnerships. NYLAG exists because wealth should not determine who has access to justice.
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South Brooklyn Sanctuary (SBS) responds to a civil rights crisis hiding in plain sight: there is no right to counsel in immigration court, and nearly half of immigrant New Yorkers are forced to represent themselves in complex legal proceedings. We train volunteers to support immigrant community members navigating a rapidly changing legal system with greater clarity and dignity.
UnLocal aims to address the fundamental injustices and structural inequities that disproportionately impact immigrant communities. We are a community-centered non-profit organization that provides direct immigration legal representation, community education, outreach, and advocacy for New York’s undocumented immigrants. UnLocal is dedicated to creating sustainable structures that build collective power and allow us to flourish.