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BOSTON - Wednesday,
May 24, 2023 - Mayor Michelle Wu and the Mayor’s Office
for Immigrant Advancement (MOIA) today announced that the City is awarding
$711,000 in grants to 15 nonprofits to expand access to immigration
services. The grants range from $5,000 to $90,000 for programs including
Know Your Rights training, forms assistance, and legal consultation and
representation.
“The immigration
system is complicated, and it can be difficult and expensive to get access
to qualified legal help,” said Mayor Michelle Wu. “I’m grateful
to these organizations for stepping up to provide these critical services
to our residents.”
Immigration legal
services are expensive and there is often not enough capacity for
organizations and lawyers to take new cases. In the 2022 federal
fiscal year,
there were more than 13,000 immigration court proceedings and over 40% did
not have. Building on the Mayor’s commitment to ensure Boston is a city for
everyone, these grants are part of several initiatives by the Mayor’s
Office for Immigrant Advancement to make sure legal help is not limited to
only residents who can afford it and to find innovative ways to expand much
needed resources. Additional MOIA-led initiatives include Free
Immigration Consultations, Citizenship
Day, and Dedicated
Docket clinics.
“When people don’t
have access to qualified and competent legal services, they often fall prey
to scams,” said Monique Tú Nguyen, Executive Director of the
Mayor’s Office for Immigrant Advancement. “Through supporting community
organizations and advocating for better immigration policies, we're finding
solutions to major systematic issues in our communities.”
Fifteen local
organizations are selected to receive funding from the MOIA Expanding
Access to Immigration Services Grant. They are:
Agencia ALPHA: Funding will expand capacity to
provide immigration legal services.
Boston Adult
Technical Academy: The organization will support
immigrant students by providing legal consultations from an immigration
attorney.
Brazilian
Women’s Group: The organization will support their
members by providing an immigration attorney to give guidance in
immigration cases and the new driver’s license law.
Brazilian
Worker Center: The grant will expand their current
immigration support for recently arrived Brazilian immigrants.
Centro
Presente: The organization will increase their
capacity to provide legal consultation clinics and share Know Your Rights
material for recent arrivals.
Gilbert Albert
Community Center: Funding will pilot on-site events
dedicated to legal services.
Greater Boston
Legal Services: The grant will provide brief legal
services to recent arrivals.
Immigrant
Family Services Institute: The organization will provide
immigration legal services to recently arrived Haitian immigrants.
International
Institute of New England: Funding will allow asylees and
refugees to apply for permanent residency.
Mabel Center
for Immigrant Justice: The organization will take new cases
for asylum seekers in Boston Immigration Court.
Mutual Aid
Eastie: Funding will be used to train
community members to help residents get driver’s licenses starting in July
2023.
Project
Citizenship: The grant will help permanent
residents apply for U.S. citizenship with a disability waiver.
Soccer Without
Borders: Funding will provide Know Your Rights
sessions to participants.
Somali
Development Center: The organization will enroll staff in
immigration law training for Department of Justice recognition and
accreditation.
Student Clinic
for Immigrant Justice: The funds will be used to train
students to support attorneys with asylum cases.
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