Campaign Action
With the GOP-led Congress continuing to stall on permanent protections for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients and other undocumented immigrants, local and state governments have been moving forward with proposals to protect their communities. In Cambridge, Massachusetts, Mayor Marc McGovern, community leaders, and private donors have announced the creation of a $50,000 defense fund to provide legal services for the most vulnerable of immigrants, including DACA recipients, asylum seekers, and victims of violence.
Under the law, immigrants in immigration court do not have the right to government-appointed counsel, to devastating effect. According to one study, “with guaranteed legal representation, up to 12 times as many immigrants have been able to win their cases.” The Cambridge Legal Defense Fund for Immigrants hopes to change this. “A legal defense fund gives low-income immigrants a fighting chance to stay in the country they now call home,” said Manny Lusardi, liaison for immigrant affairs. “This is the first in many steps combating the hate and xenophobia coming out of the White House”:
In a community letter released today, Mayor McGovern invoked Cambridge’s legacy as a Sanctuary City calling on the community to stand in support of their immigrant friends and neighbors. He denounced the recent surge of xenophobia emphasizing its devastating impact on families, “The current political climate...threatens to tear families apart through forced deportations, uproot young Dreamers, increase the vulnerability of victims of sexual violence and domestic abuse and erode the very values of our democracy. Amid the alarmist anti-immigrant rhetoric sweeping our nation, it is now more important than ever that we stand firmly with our immigrant community and act on a local level to ensure their rights are protected.”
Cambridge had been on Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III’s radar over its so-called “sanctuary city” designation last year, when the administration threatened to withhold Department of Justice (DOJ) funding from cities like Cambridge over these legal, locally-decided policies. Despite Sessions’ threat, Cambridge refused to budge. “We don’t have time to lose,” said Cambridge Community Foundation president Geeta Pradhan. “The urgency of this issue—it is immediate. People are losing their families. They’re getting torn apart. We need to do something, we need to act, and we really need to act now.”