Political Asylum/Immigration Representation Project, Inc.
Justice, Hope & Safety
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
There is great need to protect the legal rights of immigrants in the Commonwealth and for PAIR’s work, especially as the federal government brings sweeping changes, including blocking asylum-seekers from entering the U.S.; prioritizing the arrest and detention of all undocumented immigrants; banning refugees, immigrants, students, and visitors from certain countries; and jeopardizing the status of hundreds of thousands of immigrants who have temporary forms of status. These are the challenges that the PAIR faces on a daily basis as we work to protect the rights of our clients. Due to a surge in asylum seekers since last year, PAIR grew its asylum and detention program, expanded its Community Know Your Rights workshops across the state, and launched a special initiative to serve immigrant women and children fleeing grave violence. This trend is likely to continue into 2020, as the administration has promised to deport undocumented immigrants in record numbers.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Pro Bono Asylum Program
Through its Pro Bono Asylum Program, PAIR represents over 700 clients each year and has recruited, mentored and trained thousands of volunteer lawyers since its inception. Asylum seekers are 5 times more likely to win their case if represented.
Detention Program
Through the Detention Program, PAIR staff and pro bono attorneys advise and represent over 800 non-citizens detained by Immigration & Customs Enforcement whose immigration cases are pending in Massachusetts each year. Many of these people are refugees who escaped persecution in their home countries. Others are immigrants who grew up in this country and now have U.S. citizen spouses and young children, and almost no connection to their country of birth.
Community Outreach and "Know Your Rights" Presentations
PAIR is committed to engagement and outreach to the immigrant community and Greater Boston residents. PAIR partners with fellow nonprofits, public and charter schools, neighborhood centers, colleges, healthcare providers, law firms and more to bring its "Know Your Rights" presentations to the public. These presentations empower immigrants of varying circumstances to understand and use their constitutional rights. The presentations include: current updates on the executive actions which relate to immigration, information about one's constitutional rights when confronted by immigration enforcement, and how individuals can prepare in case they are detained. The presentation is available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Simplified and Traditional Chinese and Vietnamese.
Justice for Immigrant Families Program
Through the Justice for Immigrant Families Program, PAIR staff provide specialized legal care and wrap-around resource support for women and children. Each year, countless women and children flee violence at home and take an uncertain journey in the hopes of finding safety in a new country. When they finally come to the U.S., they realize that their call for help is met with imprisonment and lack of access to justice. Many women and children, due to trauma and language barriers, can’t navigate the immigration system with its confusing laws and complex forms for relief.
Where we work
Accreditations
Board of Immigration Appeals - Accreditation 2017
Awards
Affiliations & memberships
Massachusetts Nonprofit Network 2017
External reviews
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Founded in 1989, PAIR fills a crucial gap in civil legal aid for immigrants and asylum seekers across Massachusetts. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 60 million Americans, one in five, qualify for free civil legal assistance for matters such as eviction, protective orders, back wages, and deportation defense. Unfortunately, unlike criminal court, there is no right to free counsel for these life-saving cases. The job to fill the “justice gap” falls to nonprofits such as PAIR. More than 60 percent of those seeking help are turned away solely because of limited staff and resources. It’s worse for vulnerable immigrants, many who have fled violence and torture in their home country. A survey of civil legal aid services across Massachusetts, conducted by the Boston Bar Association, found that the turn-away rate for immigration civil legal aid was as high as 52%. Recent changes to immigration policy and enforcement practices, including enhanced enforcement and use of detention, have overwhelmed immigration legal aid providers, many who were already at capacity, creating barriers to access to justice for a highly vulnerable immigrant population. PAIR has been on the frontlines of protecting immigrants’ rights and their access to free legal counsel, diligently working toward sustainable growth to absorb increased demand. Immigrant communities have experienced an assault on their legal rights and security.
PAIR serves low-income asylum seekers who have fled persecution and low-income immigrants detained by ICE who are asylum-seekers, victims of torture and victims of crimes in the U.S. PAIR clients come from over 90 countries, including Cameroon, Cuba, El Salvador, Honduras, Iran, Iraq, Jamaica, Pakistan, Russia, Syria, Uganda, and Zimbabwe, and nearly all have immigration cases in Immigration Court in Boston or U.S. Immigration Offices in Boston. All PAIR clients are below 125% of poverty level.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Asylum seekers with legal representation are five times more likely to win their asylum case. For PAIR clients, receiving critical legal aid at no cost makes a great difference, preventing deportation to a country where they fear grave harm. PAIR’s work to close the gap between client need and access to justice is critical. Complexities of asylum law, fragile clients, life-or-death stakes, and harsh procedural requirements require PAIR to respond immediately to an asylum seeker’s need for a timely filing and representation at their administrative hearing. With the aim of strengthening and expanding our legal services to indigent asylum seekers and detained immigrants, PAIR added 3 new legal staff positions last Fiscal year (senior attorney to focus on case for immigrant women and children, detention attorney, and a paralegal/social services coordinator). Over the past several years, PAIR has increased its program budget solely due to the needs of the immigrant community who flee violence and also who are unjustly held by ICE. In addition, due to ongoing fear and concern about safety, many community-based organizations, service providers, and schools reached out to PAIR for community education “Know Your Rights” (KYR) workshops. Last FY, we held over 130 workshops to more than 2,700 immigrants.
PAIR accomplished these goals with the support of a dedicated network of volunteer attorneys and legal services organization. We also worked closely with other non-profits, including MLAC grantees. PAIR operates to fulfill its mission to support PAIR clients in a holistic, compassionate manner and to provide legal education and removal defense so that they remain safely in the U.S. We maintain an outstanding level of trust and respect with the legal, immigrant, and philanthropic communities, and are an active member of local bar associations and coalitions such as MIRA, MLRI's Immigration Coalition, the Greater Boston Immigrant Defense Fund and AILA NE.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Each year, over 20 million refugees are forced to flee their homes due to war, persecution, and human rights violations. There are over 500,000 asylum-seekers hoping for legal protection in the U.S., with over 20,000 in Massachusetts alone. Yet, this vulnerable population does not have the right to free counsel, though the stakes of deportation are life and death. PAIR is dedicated to ensuring human rights protections and access to justice for vulnerable asylum-seekers who have fled from persecution throughout the world primarily through pro bono attorneys. We have a dedicated staff of 15 individuals committed to PAIR's mission to provide access to justice to immigrants. PAIR staff both take cases in-house and also provide close mentoring to our volunteer attorneys. Last FY, PAIR trained over 200 new attorneys. We received donated legal service by hundreds of PAIR volunteers, who provided more than 24,000 volunteer hours, for a value of over $13.5 million dollars in legal services to assist vulnerable asylum-seekers and detained immigrants to apply for asylum and other forms of humanitarian relief and navigate the complex immigration system.
For 30 years, PAIR’s pro bono asylum and detention programs have provided legal representation to low income non-citizens seeking asylum and other humanitarian forms of deportation defense. Today, PAIR offers over 10 types of pro bono engagement for volunteer attorneys through PAIR’s programs. Recruiting attorneys to take on full representation matters is our most pressing need. PAIR’s pro bono projects are one of the leading asylum representation programs in the country, with over 1,200 active volunteer attorneys who handle over 600 affirmative and defensive asylum cases before the Boston Asylum Office, the Boston Immigration Court, the Board of Immigration Appeals, and the Circuit Court of Appeals. PAIR’s pro bono program relies almost entirely on volunteer attorneys, the great majority of whom have no previous experience in immigration or asylum law. We assist our pro bono partners by providing training, materials, support services, and consultations. Largely as a result of the efforts of its pro bono partners, PAIR has helped thousands of asylum-seekers from more than 90 nations begin new lives in the United States. Our asylum project has become a national model for organizations providing immigration legal services.
All PAIR clients are matched with volunteer attorneys who prepare and present the client's case before the asylum office and/or the immigration court. Under the close supervision of PAIR staff attorneys, volunteer attorneys work with their clients to file the I-589 asylum application and to submit supporting evidence, including the client declaration, expert affidavits, and country condition documentation. Since 1989, PAIR has recruited, trained and mentored over 3,000 pro bono attorneys in private practice to represent asylum-seekers.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Last fiscal year, July 1, 2018 - June 30, 2019, PAIR served over 1,600 clients through our programs, mostly through our pro bono network of 1,200 attorneys. PAIR intaked and provided one-on-one legal consultation to 213 non-detained asylum seekers through our monthly asylum intake clinics. We accepted for full representation 48% of the clients who came to our clinics. In addition, we accepted another 62 new clients through our recently launched Access to Justice for Immigrant Families initiative. The clients are minors and women fleeing familial violence. During the fiscal year, PAIR had 700 active asylum cases and had 16 case wins, many who went on to apply for family reunification. PAIR has an overall 95% success rate in its asylum program. While we take pride in our client wins, this year, the Boston Immigrant Court hired 5 former trial attorneys to serve as judges. These former prosecutors have been hard on asylum seekers, so PAIR may not be able to maintain its high success rate. However, we intend to appeal all asylum denials, especially those that are bias and unjust.
In the Detention Program, PAIR conducted 59 legal orientation sessions in immigration detention centers across the state. This was needed because some of the jails added new ICE units, there were several large transfers of detained immigrants from the southern border, and ICE started expanding its use of Franklin County Jail and recently opened Wyatt Detention Facility. This year, PAIR served over 786 detained immigrants with legal orientation and one-on-one consultation and legal screening, with a total of 953 active cases. We represented 70 new clients with custody issues and cases on the merits. Since July 1, 2018, 54 detained clients were granted relief (bond or relief on the merits). The majority of the full representation cases were placed in-house due to the complexity of the case matter and quick deadlines, often less than a month. Because the current administration has punished those seeking asylum in the U.S., many detained asylum seekers are being denied bond or are granted bond, but with the amounts being over $10,000 (often $20,000). PAIR has been assisting more and more detained immigrants with release from custody through the process of submitting a humanitarian parole request.
Related to our community engagement efforts, to show solidarity with immigrant communities, in FY18-19, PAIR conducted over 130 community education “Know Your Rights” (KYR) workshops to more than 2,700 immigrants: community members, and allies in schools, community centers, libraries, health facilities, and more public arenas. Since we started the KYR initiative in December 2016, we have provided over 600 community KYR presentations, consistently recruit and train new pro bonos every month, and reached more than 14,000 community members.
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
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Political Asylum/Immigration Representation Project, Inc.
Board of directorsas of 08/24/2023
Ms Susan Cohen
Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky & Popeo
Term: 2019 - 2021
David McHaffey
McHaffey & Nice LLC
Vivie Hengst
Massachusetts Office of Refugees & Immigrants
Susan Cohen
Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky & Popeo
Steven Barrett
WilmerHale
Michael Boudett
Foley Hoag
Edith Fobid
Hospice Worker
Richard Harper
SEC
Kathy Henry
Plymouth Rock Assurance
Doris Cristobal
SEUI 32 BJ
Alan Rom
Rom Law
Wendy Zazik
Fidelity Investments
Irene Nakku
Northeast Residential Services DDS,
Daniel Esrick
Pillpack
Octavio Guerra
Business Owner
Jamal Hussein
Financial Services
Nancy Rego Sevich
State Street Global Markets
Jennifer Rikoski
Ropes & Gray LLP