Legal Expenses in Immigration Act Passed by Senate

By Lucienne Burns | April 21, 2026

A large crowd attended last week’s senate meeting (4/15) to speak about the Legal Expenses in Immigration Act, which was up for discussion on the meeting’s agenda.  Photo Credit: Lucienne Burns / The ASP

The Student Association Senate only briefly began their budget process at the senate meeting on April 15, as instead a majority of the meeting was taken up by a bill up on the legislative agenda, the Legal Expenses in Immigration Act (LEIF). 

The LEIF Act, if fully implemented, would allocate $50,000 of the Student Association’s Internal Budget to create an immigration legal fund available to students through the UAlbany Foundation. 

By creating the fund, the Student Association is “ensuring that its mission to provide extracurricular opportunities to undergraduate activity-fee paying students is protected” as outlined in the bill. The act would finalize a budget line item for this defense fund, and when enacted, it would function to subsidize legal costs for undergraduate student activity free-paying members in cases of federal immigration action.

S.2526-167 or the LEIF Act, sponsored by Senator Marcos Perez, Senator Grace Augenstern and co-sponsored by Senator Jelani Harris, Senator Carolina Thomas, Senator Maceo Foster, Senator Alana Borrero, and Senator Jonah Martinez overwhelmingly passed the senate at last week’s meeting. 

The bill prompted a much larger turnout than usual for a senate meeting, with over 40 people in the audience to support the bill and encourage its passage during the public comment section. 

“Many students come on campus to learn, connect and have fun. All of us want to feel safe,” a student said in support of the legislation. 

“This bill is about giving students a fair chance. Many students face complicated legal systems without any legal help,” another student said. “If you believe in education, then you should believe in protecting students who are a part of it. Supporting this bill is supporting students who want to learn.”

Along with the vocal student support, according to Senator Maceo Foster, a petition signed by faculty from at least 13 academic departments in support of the legislation had been circulated earlier that day. 

Many students during public comment spoke about their relatives immigrating to the United States and their fear of immigration enforcement coming to campus, and that compassion for other humans should motivate senators to vote “yes.” Speeches in support of the bill prompted loud rounds of applause from senators and other audience members. 

“Yes we’re all human beings, nobody here disagrees with that. But like, coming to America is not a right, it’s a privilege,” another student said, opposing the majority view on the bill. 

Despite the amount of support, some people spoke out against the bill. One student said that this was outside the scope of the Student Association’s job, and that they are not carrying out their main purpose of serving students. 

“You’re here to represent students and improve student life on campus, whether that’s funding clubs, making campus more affordable or giving resources that benefit the entire student body,” said a student during public comment. 

“A lot of students are already struggling financially, and it’s not fair to ask them to contribute to something that doesn’t directly benefit them or that they may not agree with,” she added. 

Members of the audience who had opposing views on the legislation were seen debating after public comment. 

The senate previously passed resolutions, one last spring and one last month, encouraging the university to protect immigrant and international students from federal immigration operations. However, the LEIF Act differs in that it is actual legislation that implements policy.

When speaking about the bill as a sponsor, Senator Perez added that the Student Association is not the entity that will be directly handling the funds; they would be transferred to the UAlbany Foundation who would then run its operations. 

He explained following the legislation’s passage, the senate would vote on the “Resolution to Establish the LEIF Act Memorandum of Understanding,” that would be discussed with the UAlbany Foundation to lay out questions and procedures for the immigration fund. 

According to the resolution, this includes the funding management by the UAlbany Foundation, criteria of eligibility, how the fund is utilized, publicity and confidentiality. 

The senate also passed the resolution after the bill. 

Senators also said that the bill is not costing students who pay the student activity fee any extra money — it takes a small percentage of the fee that students all already pay and reallocates it to the legal defense fund. 

The Board of Finance still has to vote on the bill following the senate’s passage.

The Board of Finance Chair Evan Reilly, along with the Board’s Vice Chair Sam LoCigno expressed support for the bill, despite disapproval on an earlier version of the legislation. 

“When this first version of the bill was presented, it was a very difficult decision, but we felt it was missing key elements, it wasn’t as strong as it needed to be,” Vice Chair LoCigno said, with Chair Reilly expressing similar sentiments. “Now looking at the revised bill, I have real confidence, not only in the ability to make our campus safer, but also the support behind it.”

Passing with a vote of 32-2-1, the senate was in strong support of the bill and expressed so during debate. 

“We are one of four flagship universities in the SUNY system. The SUNY system is the second largest public university system in the country…what we need to be doing as a flagship university at the second largest public university system in the country, we need to be leading from the front,” said Senator Foster. 

One senator in the negative expressed agreeing with the bill’s intentions, but opposed the method in which they would be carried out. 

“Just because I’m not going to be in favor with us tonight doesn’t mean that I don’t have compassion for people. I want to protect students too,” said Senator Dylan Maher. “I want to take care of people, but this endangers people, okay? It doesn’t protect anybody because what you’re doing is putting a target on this campus.” 

The meeting additionally saw comptroller and deputy comptroller appointments for next academic year, appropriations bills for clubs passed, and the beginning of the budget process. This process will continue at this week’s meeting (4/22) to further discuss the external budget for next academic year.