Our vision is bigger than ILAP. While we fight for justice in the immigration system and for our clients, we know that the success of our mission is connected to the many partners working alongside us for social and racial justice, especially organizations led by immigrants and people of color in Maine. ILAP Strategic Goals 2021-2025 Increase access to justice by providing more legal assistance and strengthening outreach. Make ILAP’s services equitable for immigrants statewide. Advance racial justice and equity for immigrants through advocacy and federal litigation. Grow and sustain ILAP’s fiscal health, infrastructure, and human resources, while centering our work in equity and anti-racism.We have seen how our immigration laws can be manipulated by an administration hostile to immigrants and set on deporting or denying entry to people because of their race or religion. We cannot go back to the punitive, anti-humanitarian immigration policies that date back decades. Instead, we must look forward and build a new immigration system that welcomes those who come to the United States to seek safety, reunite with family, or pursue a better life. We must act now if we want our immigration laws and policies to reflect American ideals of freedom, justice, and opportunity. In this important moment, we invite you to join us as we work to expand immigration legal services in Maine and fight alongside partner immigrant-led organizations for a system that will benefit us all.Why now? We continue to see an increasing need for immigration legal services in Maine. We have the chance to push ahead with bold plans for change under the Biden Administration. We are committed to helping build a just recovery from the pandemic for all Mainers. We recently completed a strategic plan that lays out our roadmap for the next five years. We have the expertise and experience, built over the last 25 years, to take action now.Join ILAP’s $5 million Impact Campaign to help us change systems and lives. Together, we will help more people navigate the increasingly unjust immigration laws we have now, while we push for changes that will create a just and equitable immigration system for the future. By increasing access to justice, more immigrants living in Maine will gain legal status, find stability, and pursue the hopes and dreams they have for themselves and their families. It will also strengthen our communities, ensuring the many contributions of our immigrant neighbors are recognized and valued.Providing legal representation to clients without legal status and those in danger of violence and persecution is a core part of ILAP’s mission. We must redouble our efforts to meet the need today and in the coming years. Increase Access to Justice by Providing More Legal Assistance and Strengthening Outreach ILAP clients and their Pro Bono Panel attorneys celebrate a grant of asyum in the halls of Boston Immigration Court.As Maine welcomes people seeking asylum and children and youth from war-torn countries seeking safety, the immigration processes designed to protect them have become increasingly unfair and difficult to navigate without legal guidance. Anti-immigrant policies have also made it more difficult for survivors of domestic violence, crime, and trafficking to get legal status, and have left most people who are out of legal status with few options for remaining in the U.S. with their loved ones. To reach the basic human aspirations of personal safety, family unity, and economic security, immigrants now face a system that one immigration judge likened to “death penalty cases in a traffic court setting,” with no government-paid attorney if they are unable to afford their own. For more than 25 years, ILAP has helped thousands of clients gain asylum, reunify with family, and earn their citizenship. But many more face an unjust and confusing immigration system alone. With immigration reform bills on the horizon, we also anticipate that we may have to quickly expand our services for people who qualify. They will need accurate information and help navigating any new application processes for legal status. To meet more of the demand for free immigration legal services across the state, ILAP must continue to grow.More and more people outside of Greater Portland need accessible and affordable immigration legal help. We must reach purposefully to all corners of Maine, from York to Aroostook counties. ILAP must grow to meet the increasing demand for high-priority cases. This Campaign will help thousands more Mainers each year find safety, keep their families together, and achieve financial stability. At the same time, we need to augment our community legal education and provide more types of assistance to those we cannot represent. This includes important online resources, client education materials, and self-help guides that were created for the remote environment, but will remain essential tools for people we cannot provide with an attorney. Make ILAP’s Services Equitable for Immigrants StatewideILAP has been a statewide organization since our founding in 1993. Over the last five years, we have opened an office in Lewiston, set up bi-monthly legal services in Milbridge in Washington County, and created a Rural Maine Project to reach all corners of the state more holistically. A recently completed review of community resources and immigration legal needs throughout Maine, however, found that transportation and isolation still present significant challenges to the delivery of services in many areas. Families with low incomes living in rural communities face additional challenges, such as lack of childcare or the inability to take time off from work, that can make it impossible to get legal help in their immigration cases. Keep families like José and Michelle’s, originally from Honduras, together.Next >