Pledging initiative – Submission form: Submission #2300

Section I
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Name of entity submitting the pledge: 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}
Full name: Pablo Mariani
Position: KMO
Country of implementation: Brazil (87)
Other country of implementation: Global (23641)
Region of implementation: {Empty}
Email Address: pmariani@mayorsmechanism.org
Secondary contact person: {Empty}
Secondary email: {Empty}

Section II
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Name of the pledge: Increasing 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) ?: {Empty}

Section III
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Nature of the pledge: Process 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

Section IV
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Please select the main three GCM objectives the pledge is/are meant to support: 7. 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

Section V
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Please indicate which GCM Guiding Principle is/are particularly relevant for the pledge:
People-centred (738); International cooperation (739); National sovereignty (742); Rule of law and due process (741); Sustainable development (740); Human rights (259); Gender-responsive (258); Child-sensitive (257); Whole-of-government approach (737); Whole-of-society approach (736)


Section VI
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Please provide a description of the pledge:
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.


Section VII
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Please indicate the tentative deadline within which this pledge is expected to be realised: 31 Oct 2022

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