Camille Mackler is the executive director and co-founder of Immigrant ARC, a community of legal advocates as well as an immigration-law training and policy institute. Started as a project of the New York Immigration Coalition in 2017 in reaction to the presidential executive order banning visitors from seven predominantly Muslim countries, it became independent in 2020.
“The majority of migrants from the southern border stepping off buses at the Port Authority right now are coming to our city with just the clothes on their backs and no one waiting for them. Largely political and economic refugees from Venezuela, their cell phones, passports, and even extra clothing were taken away by U.S. immigration officials.
In my work over the years as an immigration lawyer, I realized that I could make the biggest difference by working to change the way that our country, state, and city help immigrants. America is seen as a beacon of hope, but that beacon is broken. My job is to bring together 80 legal service providers throughout New York State to fix this system.
How do we do it? For starters, we make sure the people who work day in and day out to help newcomers have a seat at the policymaking table. The New York Community Trust is currently funding our work to do just that, and make sure federal immigration regulations reflect the needs of our city’s communities. As the city’s community foundation, it understands that we need to put our faith in these service providers, and lift up their recommendations on how to improve regulations so they are more fair and humane. This includes reducing fees to apply for benefits, and addressing the causes of immigration court’s case backlog and processing delays.
Success for me means working my way out of a job. My goal is to build a system that allows immigrants to create lives for themselves. You shouldn’t need a lawyer to get protection and safety, to reunite with a family, or to take advantage of a job opportunity. The system is designed to be difficult to navigate. I see people try on their own and fail because it is just too complicated.
If we can fix this system, I will happily retire and open a café in the south of France. But until then, I am dedicated to making life better for people who are just looking for a chance to lead a better life.”