Funding from CIJF to provide long-term legal services
CIJF partners with Home is Here NOLA
Louisiana imprisons close to 20% of all of the detained asylum seekers in the United States. Nearly 4,000 immigrants are in Louisiana immigration prisons, roughly 6 times as many as in Colorado.
Detained immigrants in Louisiana are perhaps the most underserved in the country. As a comparison:
There is one detention center in Colorado, and the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) lists 82 asylum attorneys in the state.
There are nine detention centers in Louisiana, with just 20 Louisiana-based asylum attorneys listed on AILA’s site.
Put another way, there are roughly 25 times as many asylum attorneys per detained immigrant in Colorado as there are in Louisiana.
Home is Here NOLA builds community
In 2021 Julie Yael Ward founded Home is Here NOLA with a vision for building a vibrant community in support of newly arriving immigrants in Louisiana, including
Building capacity for legal aid, housing and community education
Establishing a visitation program for detained immigrants
Supporting immigrants as they establish new lives in Louisiana through sponsorship for release from detention & community resettlement
Community Education & Legal Aid Pilot Project
Under Julie’s guidance, Home is Here NOLA is partnering with the Louisiana Organization for Refugees & Immigrants (LORI) and Organiza Texas to create capacity to provide pro bono legal services for immigrants in Louisiana.
This 3-month project launched in July and entails creating partnerships with the Louisiana legal community. These services will include
Know Your Rights education and legal orientations to help immigrants protect themselves and navigate the complicated legal landscape to remain safe in this country
“Pro se” workshops to enable immigrants to complete basic documents and represent themselves in immigration court, in the event they cannot retain an attorney
Cultivating pro bono legal service capacity for asylum cases.
Funding from CIJF to provide long-term legal services
Because of the generosity of our donors, CIJF is providing $21,500 to fully fund the project.
This will include the design and implementation of the pilot phase of all of the above aspects of this programming. Our hope is to demonstrate an effective, sustainable and statewide partnership model to attract additional funding.
We can typically fund 4-5 asylum cases for $21,500. With this project, we are funding the work to create a sustainable community-owned model to provide legal services for thousands of immigrants - in a place where this kind of solidarity is most needed in the South.
An opportunity to meet Julie at our September 23 celebration
Julie is one of several partners who will be presenting at our Coffee Chat with CIJF celebration and fundraiser on September 23. If you can join us, please register here today!
