Urgent Alert - Please Read!

Moving and Advancing of Massachusetts and Connecticut Immigration Court Hearings

On April 8, 2024 the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) will be opening a new immigration court in Chelmsford, Massachusetts (the “Lowell Immigration Court”). In the coming weeks and months, EOIR will be pulling cases of individuals who reside in certain zip codes from the Boston and Hartford Immigration Court dockets and transferring them to Lowell.

Because the Lowell court will have a complete slate of new cases, cases on the Lowell docket will likely proceed much more quickly than cases have in Boston and Hartford. When cases are transferred, the Boston/Hartford hearing dates will be canceled, and it is very likely that the rescheduled date will be significantly sooner. And because cases will be removed from the Boston and Hartford dockets, it is likely that cases which remain in those courts will also be advanced when hearing slots from transferred cases open up.

If you have a case pending in the Boston or Hartford courts, we strongly recommend that you check the EOIR online portal regularly to check your client’s next hearing date.

As always, if you have questions about anything, including how these changes will affect your clients’ cases, please contact your PAIR mentor.

A note from Melanie, Pro Bono Involvement Coordinator:

Dear Friend of PAIR,

As the urgent alert above reads, combined with 2024 being another critical election year, it is essential for us to increase our capacity to represent asylum seekers here in the state.

As we get further into 2024, we have a number of volunteer opportunities, and limited scope and full representation cases that are in need of pro bono placement. This month, we have both non-detained and detained asylum cases—as well as Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) cases that are in need of pro bono attorneys to represent clients before the Family and Probate court.

Every pro bono attorney is matched with a PAIR mentor for step-by-step guidance every step of the way. We also have a robust training bank with recordings & materials from all of our recent trainings.

Lastly, my colleague Julia Ciachurski will also be hosting a Know Your Rights Training on Wednesday, February 14th at 12 pm for interested volunteers! Please scroll below to RSVP.

If you have been thinking about getting involved, or have any questions about taking on a case, please reach out to me any time—I'd be very glad to help!

Melanie

Upcoming Training

Know Your Rights Training for New Volunteers/Pro Bono Attorneys

Wednesday, February 14, 2024

from 12:00 - 1:00pm EST

Hosted by PAIR Detention Attorney, Julia Ciachurski

We are looking for volunteer attorneys to assist with our Know Your Rights (KYR) initiative. Since 2016, PAIR has reached more than 19,500 community members through its KYR initiative by collaborating with shelters, churches, schools, and community centers across Massachusetts. Each presentation is about one hour and covers a brief overview of the immigration system, recent immigration updates, important legal resources, and your rights when encountering immigration officials.

This meeting on 2/14 is a "training of the trainers" for supporting our KYR presentations. Please click here to register.

If you are interested in volunteering or have any additional questions, please email Julia Ciachurski, jciachurski@pairproject.org.  

Volunteer Interpreters Needed!



We are requesting volunteer Spanish interpreters for our detention intakes on the upcoming Wednesday afternoons of:

• February 7
• February 21
• February 28

If you are interested and available, please email Omairy Martinez, omartinez@pairproject.org. 

Available Asylum Pro Bono Cases

To read the longer case abstract for each the cases below, please click here.

If you are an attorney and are interested in taking on one of the below non-detained asylum cases, please email me at mgleason@pairproject.org.

Asylum (Immigration Court): LFM (Guatemala) is a 31-year-old Guatemalan woman who fears returning to her home country with her son due to the extreme violence she has endured from a cartel, as well as her own family.

Asylum (Immigration Court): WM (Brazil) is a 33-year-old Brazilian man who has been psychologically and physically abused, as well as endured sexual violence, due to his sexual orientation.

Asylum (Immigration Court): DD (Guinea) is a 39-year-old Guinean woman who fears she will be killed by her father and that her daughter will be subjected to FGM (female genital mutilation) if they had to return.

Asylum (Immigration Court): SLB (Republic of Congo) is a 21-year-old man who fled the Republic of Congo due to the danger he faced on account of his father’s political involvement.

Asylum (Immigration Court): EGO (Colombia) is a 33-year old woman who fears return because of being a member of the family of her well-known stepfather, who spoke out against the Ejército de Liberacion Nacional (ELN)'s youth recruitment efforts in their community.

Asylum (Immigration Court): ALGV (Honduras) is a 45-year-old woman who fears returning because of her advocacy work, as well as persecution of being a disabled woman, by her ex-partner, family members, and a gang.

Asylum (Immigration Court): LJJ and SM (Haiti) are an unmarried couple who fear returning to Haiti due to their respective families' political involvement, and subsequent violent retaliation.

Asylum (Immigration Court): MG and MA (Haiti) are an unmarried couple who fear returning due to persecution by Haitian gangs due to MG's mother's political involvement.

Available Detained Pro Bono Cases

Note: The hearings for the following detained asylum/withholding of removal/Convention Against Torture (CAT) cases are presently being heard remotely via Webex:

BA (Kyrgyzstan): BA fled Kyrgyzstan after being targeted as a government oppositionist. He is detained at Plymouth and speaks Kyrgyz and Russian.

ODM (Kyrgyzstan): ODM fled Kyrgyzstan after suffering significant harm at the hands of the Kyrgyz government after attending several anti-government protests. He is detained at Plymouth and speaks Kyrgyz and Russian.

DK (Russia): DK is afraid to return to Russia because of his political opinion, including publicly speaking out against the Putin regime and the war in Ukraine.

EZ (Kyrgyzstan): EZ fled his home country after suffering significant harm at the hands of an organized criminal group.

Available Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) Cases

Note: All of these cases are in need of a volunteer attorney to represent the client before the Probate and Family Court to seek predicate findings for SIJS based on abandonment, abuse, and/or neglect. After obtaining findings and filing the SIJS petition, PAIR hopes to terminate each client's removal proceedings:

SCH: "Sarah" is a 17-year-old high school student from Guatemala who was abandoned and neglected by her parents, and threats from gangs grew worse and her grandparents were so elderly that they could not provide for or protect her.

DMR: "David" is a 20-year-old young man from Honduras, who grew up with his father, who was physically abusive, and David's uncle was murdered in a land takeover attempt—and subsequently, David also received threats as a result.

ARM: "Alex" is a 19-year-old young man from Honduras whose father was extremely negligent and was effectively left orphaned and abandoned after his elderly grandmother died. 

Pro Bono Resources