ALBANY — New York is expanding its first-in-the-nation legal defense project for immigrants to include social and health care services for families and rapid response to raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Thursday.

"While the federal government wages war on immigrant families seeking the American Dream, New York is standing by our commitment to protect people from all backgrounds and embrace our diversity," Cuomo said in a Thursday news release. "These expanded services will help immigrants who are unfairly targeted by ICE get the legal assistance they need and provide health care services to undocumented children and families who have been neglected by the federal government."

New York is home to 940,000 undocumented immigrants, according to the Migration Policy Institute. An estimated 53,000 are under the age of 16, the Governor's press release said.

The new Project Golden Door will provide comprehensive family support services at 12 existing sites, including Albany. The project will partner with SOMOS Community Care, a nonprofit network of more than 2,500 Latino community-based doctors as well as local social service agencies and pro-bono attorneys.

The Legal Defense Project's new Regional Rapid Response team will set up attorneys in the state's 10 Regional Economic Development Council areas. The Capital Region will get two dedicated attorneys to support local legal providers and respond to an increasing number of detained asylum seekers. The Albany County jail received more than 300 asylum-seekers from the southern border this summer, although many have now been transferred to a federal detention center near Buffalo.

Other regions getting two attorneys include Western New York, Central New York, the Hudson Valley and Long Island.

The Legal Defense Project also runs the Immigrant Family Unity Project, managed by non-profit organization Vera Institute for Justice out of the state's Office for New Americans. Since July 2017, New York State has been the first and only state in the nation to provide representation to all unrepresented detained immigrants who are facing deportation proceedings and can't afford a lawyer.

The project has served more than 25,000 immigrants and communities in need. One quarter were released and reunited with their families.

One immigrant in this situation was Emile, whose name was changed by the Vera Institute to protect his identity. He's been a lawful permanent resident since he was young. When he was detained by ICE, he was a student at Buffalo State College and working as a restaurant manager to support his wife, who was pregnant with their first child.

In his last semester of college, he was offered a job as a financial advisor. When his employer ran a background check, ICE discovered he had a misdemeanor conviction. The agency arrested, detained and placed him in deportation proceedings.

A lawyer took up his case and an immigration judge at the immigration court near Buffalo granted Emile bond. He won his case and was granted permission to stay in the country with legal status.

Immigration attorneys in the Capital Region applaud the project but say that it stops short of providing legal aid for immigrants who aren't facing deportation. The Vera Institute said nearly 19,000 immigrants in New York are not detained but facing deportation without counsel.

The Institute currently receives $4.55 million to defend detained immigrants facing deportation in four immigration courts in upstate New York. The organization is now pushing for $5.45 million in the state's 2020 budget to represent 1,000 non-detained New Yorkers unable to afford counsel for their deportation proceedings.