New York Legal Assistance Group, Inc.

More than three million New York City residents are immigrants, including an estimated 400,000 who are undocumented.

Sixty-two percent of New York City children live in a household with at least one foreign-born family member, including many in mixed-status households. Recent federal changes are triggering widespread confusion, trauma, and fear. Parents are forgoing care for their children; pediatricians report an increase in cancelled appointments, missed vaccinations, and delayed diagnoses, which puts the health of families and the whole community at risk. Immigrant parents, regardless of their status, are facing profound anxiety about being separated from their children and question who would manage their child’s health care in their absence. As a result of New York Legal Assistance Group, Inc.’s (NYLAG) advocacy, New York is one of the few states in the country that allows parents with precarious immigration status to designate a legal guardian to care for their children, an option that had historically been limited to seriously ill patients. In 2025, NYHealth awarded NYLAG a grant to scale an existing medical-legal partnership to provide legal and advance planning services for immigrant families. 

Under this grant, NYLAG will expand its guardianship planning and immigrant support services in partnership with its network of 38 hospital and health care sites and community-based organizations across New York City. It will train more than 250 pro bono attorneys and host regular clinics where clients can complete guardianship and advance planning documents to ensure their children’s care. It will make its planning hotline permanent, extend hours, and reduce wait times to provide timely screening and counseling for immigrant families. NYLAG will also conduct targeted outreach and train providers to have informed conversations with families about advance planning, guardianship laws, and available pro bono legal support.