Submission form: Submission #2300

Sección I
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Nombre del Estado o agente que presenta el compromiso (sírvase indicar el sitio web, si lo hay): The Mayors Mechanism submitting in the name of the City of Boston
Pledging entity: Cities, Municipalities, and Local Authority
Is the country of the pledging entity a GCM Champion country?: {Empty}
Nombres y apellidos: Pablo Mariani
Puesto que ocupa: KMO
País: Brasil (87)
Other country of implementation: Global (23641)
Region of implementation: {Empty}
Dirección de correo electrónico: pmariani@mayorsmechanism.org
Secondary contact person: {Empty}
Secondary email: {Empty}

Sección II
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Título del compromiso: Increasing immigration legal access through immigrant-serving community based organizations
Tipo de compromiso (sírvase seleccionar): Individual (un solo Estado Miembro/ una sola parte interesada)
Is this a mirror pledge (pledge is also relevant to the Global Compact on Refugees) ?: {Empty}

 Sección III
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Naturaleza del compromiso (sírvase seleccionar): Participación en los procesos (p. ej., organización de procesos plenamente consultivos para elaboración de informes nacionales para el Foro de Examen de la Migración Internacional); Material (p. ej., prestación de asistencia técnica o contribuciones en especie); structured

 Sección V
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Sírvase indicar el (los) objetivo(s) del Pacto Mundial para la Migración que este compromiso pretende promover: 7. Abordar y reducir las vulnerabilidades en la migración; 15. Proporcionar a los migrantes acceso a servicios básicos; 16. Empoderar a los migrantes y las sociedades para lograr la plena inclusión y la cohesión social

 Sección IV
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Sírvase indicar qué principio(s) rector(es)1 es (son) particularmente pertinente(s) para este compromiso:
Centrada en las personas (738); Cooperación internacional (739); Soberanía nacional (742); Estado de derecho y garantías procesales (741); Desarrollo sostenible (740); Derechos humanos (259); Perspectiva de género (258); Perspectiva infantil (257); Enfoque pangubernamental (737); Enfoque pansocial (736)


 Sección VI
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Sírvase describir el compromiso:
Many individuals applying for immigration benefits seek legal assistance to navigate the arcane and confusing US legal system. However, the demand for accessible, affordable, and competent immigration legal assistance vastly outweighs supply. Legal aid organizations (LAOs) that help immigrants seek needed relief are vastly over capacity. The Mayor’s Office for Immigrant Advancement has committed to funding community-based organizations (CBOs) to respond to this lack of capacity. 
Our strategy provides grant funding to immigrant-led and immigrant-serving organizations to hire culturally competent attorneys, hire paralegals/case coordinators, and pay for the Department of Justice (DOJ) accreditation training process for the paralegals/case coordinators and other staff members. This approach allows immigrants to utilize the services of known and trusted CBOs that provide culturally competent and language-accessible immigration legal services. Moreover, the DOJ accreditation allows these organizations to provide immigration legal services in-house, therefore relieving some pressure from the LAOs.  To date, funding under the pilot phase has provided support to three CBOs to provide services to their own community based on linguistic needs predominant in the City of Boston - one Haitian Creole-serving, one Brazilian Portuguese-serving, and one Spanish-serving.

The City of Boston gave multiple grants in 2021 to CBOs and continues to evaluate the results. To date, the first organization to receive a grant, Immigrant Family Services Institute (IFSI), helped over 1,500 Haitians apply for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) in four months. The majority of staff at IFSI are Haitian or Haitian American, and provide culturally and linguistically responsive services to the immigrants they serve.
We expect this action to directly result in an increase of the number of staff at CBOs and to further support the hiring of community members that can provide immigration legal services. The Department of Justice accreditation process also allows a accredited staff at recognized nonprofit organizations to provide immigration legal services, which is a benefit of this funding that will go beyond the grant period, as the organization’s staff members can maintain the accreditation indefinitely through continuing education and reapplication.  As one example, the grant to IFSI led to the hiring of an in-house Haitian American immigration lawyer and supported the process of applying for DOJ accreditation for an additional staff member. 
To evaluate the efficacy of this action, we request reports of the staff members that the funding was used to hire. Additionally, we request a report at the end of the grant period, including a brief narrative of how the funds were used, overall impact, and the total number of both individuals served under this grant, including the number of clients served who received favorable results on their immigration applications.


Sección VII
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Sírvase señalar un plazo indicativo para el cumplimiento del compromiso: 31 Oct 2022

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