Program areas at Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project
Direct Legal services: ilap offers a range of direct Legal services in response to community needs, including full representation, consultations, and pro se assistance. In 2023, we provided direct Legal services to 2,314 people and benefited 1,852 of their household family members, maintaining a greater than 98% approval rate for full representation cases that received a final decision. In addition, pro bono attorneys donated 3,500+ hours of their time at a value of more than 1 million.
Systemic Advocacy: ilap collaborates with immigrant-led groups, partners in Maine's Immigrant justice movement, and regional and national organizations to safeguard and promote Legal protections for the state's Immigrant communities. In 2023, we served as a source of accurate information for the media on 61 occasions and endorsed 42 policy recommendation letters or joined public comments on a range of local, state, and federal issues related to immigration law and policy.
Community education: ilap provides accurate and accessible information on complex Legal issues in multiple languages for Immigrant community members, groups, and service providers across the state. In 2023, we hosted 108 in- person or virtual outreach events attended by 2,233 individuals. We also expanded the Legal education and self-help tools available online. Our website had 191,000 unique visitors and our social media pages reached nearly 30,000 people.