Pledging initiative – Submission form: Submission #2300

Submission information

Submission Number: 2300
Submission ID: 8046
Submission UUID: e207987f-9fa4-4286-880e-fd3b0d932d96
Submission URI: /submit-pledges

Created: Sun, 07/31/2022 - 23:03
Completed: Sun, 07/31/2022 - 23:03
Changed: Fri, 05/05/2023 - 18:04

Remote IP address: 2.22.245.54
Language: English

Is draft: No

Flagged: Yes
Name of entity submitting the pledgeThe Mayors Mechanism submitting in the name of the City of Boston
Pledging entityCities, Municipalities, and Local Authority
Is the country of the pledging entity a GCM Champion country?
Full namePablo Mariani
PositionKMO
Country of implementationBrazil
Other country of implementationGlobal
Region of implementation
Email Addresspmariani@mayorsmechanism.org
Secondary contact person
Secondary email
Name of the pledgeIncreasing immigration legal access through immigrant-serving community based organizations
Type of pledge (please select)Individual (by one state/actor)
Is this a mirror pledge (pledge is also relevant to the Global Compact on Refugees) ?
Participating States and Actors
Name of the matched pledge
ID of the matched pledge
Nature of the pledgeProcess oriented (e.g. convening fully consultative processes in preparing national reports for the IMRF); Material (e.g. provision of technical assistance or in kind contribution); structured
Please select the main three GCM objectives the pledge is/are meant to support7. Address and reduce vulnerabilities in migration; 15. Provide access to basic services for migrants; 16. Empower migrants and societies to realize full inclusion and social cohesion
Please indicate which GCM Guiding Principle is/are particularly relevant for the pledgePeople-centred; International cooperation; National sovereignty; Rule of law and due process; Sustainable development; Human rights; Gender-responsive; Child-sensitive; Whole-of-government approach; Whole-of-society approach
Please provide a description of the pledgeMany 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.
Please indicate the tentative deadline within which this pledge is expected to be realised31 Oct 2022
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*References to Kosovo shall be understood to be in the context of United Nations Security Council resolution 1244 (1999).