Legal Services

African Services Committee provides free civil legal services and immigration representation to people living with HIV. ASC also offers free legal services to African and Caribbean immigrant women and girls (cisgender women, transgender women, and gender non-conforming femmes) who have faced some form of gender-based violence. In addition, African Services Committee offers low fee immigration services for immigrants regardless of HIV status. 

ASC Covid-19 Update: Harlem Offices Closed

African Services Committee's offices in Harlem are closed March 23 until March 27 because a member of ASC staff tested positive for Covid-19. ASC staff will be working remotely during this time. 

ASC Legal Department questions: 

• Existing ASC Legal Department clients call 929-269-6494 and leave a voice message with the following information and your attorney and/or legal advocate will contact you as soon as possible:
• Full name
• Phone number
• Name of your attorney or legal advocate
• Brief explanation of what you need or the purpose for your call
• ASC Legal Hotline is 929-269-6494.  Please see the following updated Legal Hotline information 

Legal Hotline | First + Third Thursdays | 9am to 12pm |  929-269-6494

The hotline operates live every First and Third Thursday of the month from 9am to 12pm. The Hotline serves to pre-screen callers looking for services in order to schedule for follow-up consultations/ upcoming workshops, where callers will meet with ASC staff to provide legal advice or services as appropriate. Hotline callers will not receive legal advice on the hotline 

• When: First + Third Thursdays | 9am to 12pm | Call: 929-269-6494 *Please leave a voice message with the following information:
• Full name
• Phone number
• Brief explanation of what they need or the purpose for their call 
• If you are calling with an immigration issue that is an emergency, or that a relative has been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), please call the Office for New Americans at 800-566-7636 to receive immediate assistance.

Our legal team is staffed by multilingual attorneys, paralegals and law interns and provides representation in the following areas:

Civil Legal Services and Community Education 

• Immigration
• Landlord/ tenant problems including threat of eviction, housing discrimination and bad housing conditions
• Family law problems including custody, visitation, domestic violence and child support
• Benefits Assistance and Education, including: Representation for loss of benefits, financial literacy, HASA, SLF, food stamps, welfare, shelter allowances, Medicaid, and SSI
• Know Your Rights presentations
• Future planning such as health care proxies, living wills, guardianships and powers of attorney.

Black Immigrant Gender Justice Initiative 

ASC's Black Immigrant Gender Justice Initiative provides free legal services to African and Caribbean immigrant women and girls (cisgender women, transgender women, and gender non-conforming femmes) who have faced some form of gender-based violence.  Gender-based violence can include sexual violence, intimate partner violence, violence from employers or family members, hate crimes, and abuse and abandonment. Specific forms of immigration relief available to survivors of violence include asylum, U visa, T Visa, Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) Self-Petition, and Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS). The project is ran by ASC's Equal Justice Works Fellow, Samah Sisay, who is sponsored by BNY Mellon and Sullivan & Cromwell LLP. 

Immigrant Community Law Center (ICLC)

Immigrant Community Law Center (ICLC) was founded by African Services Committee in 2012 to provide high-quality, affordable, and trustworthy immigration legal representation.  ICLC is staffed by a dedicated and culturally competent multilingual team of qualified attorneys and paralegals. ICLC serves all immigrants of all backgrounds. Click here to visit ICLC’s website: www.immigratncommunitylaw.org

ICLC seeks to empower each immigrant by:

• providing high-quality, affordable, and trustworthy immigration legal representation to all immigrants in a safe multilingual, culturally competent environment.
• combating predatory attorneys and unauthorized service providers whose legal assistance often causes direly negative consequences.
• creating a network of trusted community-based organizations and non-profit organizations.
• speaking at associations, religious organizations, and schools to educate communities about rights and responsibilities in the United States, as well as proposed changes to and existing options under immigration law.

*Some consultations will be subject to a $60 initial consultation fee. Click here for more information about the consultation fee.

We work in partnership and with the support of various organizations throughout New York including the New York Immigration Coalition, Libertas Center for Survivors of Torture, Human Rights First, Legal Services for New York and HIV Law Project to protect and promote the rights of immigrants.