Massachusetts legal aid program helps immigrants in immigration court

Alma Cothias came to the Massa Viana Law office around 8:45 a.m., just as she does most mornings, right after dropping her children off at school.

She made her coffee, sat down at her desk, put on some electronic dance music and started some administrative tasks to ease into the day. Cothias said she was going to need it with her 32 clients, a number she was sure would grow.

“All my clients are in removal proceedings,” she said. “In May I’m going to have an (immigration) court hearing every week.”

Cothias is among 24 attorneys providing free legal aid to immigrants, thanks to a new $5 million program funded by Massachusetts’ state government.

The Massachusetts Access to Counsel Initiative (MACI) launched at the end of 2025 to ensure in-state immigrants have legal representation in their removal proceedings. The state Legislature created the program in response to the federal government’s mass deportation campaign, which included the detention of over 390,000 immigrants in its first year.

“We know that there is so much need for legal services for immigrants right now,” said Elizabeth Sweet, executive director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition (MIRA), the nonprofit that manages the program. “For so many immigrants going into immigration court right now, the stakes feel incredibly high.”

The root of the need is found in current practice. Immigration matters are considered civil matters, not criminal. So, though a person in removal proceedings has a right to an attorney, one will not be provided at government expense.

“It’s hard enough when you do have an attorney,” said Robin Nice, an immigration attorney who represented Yury Melissa Aguiriano Romero after agents detained her last year. “It’s extraordinarily hard when you don’t.”

The Legislature created the program last summer, after federal agencies detained 7,000 Massachusetts immigrants and deported many of them.

MIRA signed a contract with the state Office for Refugees and Immigrants to administer the program for $4.2 million in November. According to state officials, the first lawyers were seated in December.

Gov. Maura Healey’s proposed fiscal 2027 budget would maintain the program’s funding at $5 million. Senate President Karen Spilka said she wants to add an extra $1 million to the program this fiscal year, upping its allocation to $6 million. MIRA said in a recent newsletter that it is aiming for $15 million next fiscal year.

“Programs are at capacity right now, with demand outstripping capacity,” MIRA wrote.

Lawyer shortage

Many immigrants lack representation during removal proceedings.

As of February, there were 126,724 removal cases pending against Massachusetts residents in immigration court, with almost 52% of people having representation, according to data from Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse Immigration, a data analysis nonprofit. There are currently 2,271 removal cases against New Bedford residents, of which 1,344, or 59%, have legal representation.

“We would think it’s a really bad idea for someone to defend themselves in a murder trial,” Nice said. “Their lives are on the line and yet we’re asking them to represent themselves and navigate a complex legal system.”

The state has a shortage of immigration lawyers. Only 114 immigration attorneys are listed as practicing in Massachusetts in the American Immigration Lawyers Association directory, an incomplete listing.

Addressing the shortage is one of the goals of the state program, officials testified during a recent hearing of the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Ways and Means at the Mattapan Public Library.

“We are extremely under-resourced in immigration attorneys,” said Susan Church, chief operating officer at the state’s Office for Refugees and Immigrants and the program coordinator. “That led to a decision to have attorneys from out of state work in the program.”

The program also trained attorneys from other fields to work in immigration court, according to Church.

Immigrants with a potential case can call a Massachusetts Access to Counsel Initiative hotline number (508-505-4588). MACI staff determine whether a person meets the conditions necessary for a MACI attorney, such as low income, seeking certain types of relief, and limits on those with open criminal charges and convictions.

Church told the committee the hotline had received 6,000 calls since December and found 697 of the callers eligible for services under the program. But only 461 had been assigned attorneys.

“We knew at the outset of this program that the need would far exceed the resources,” said Church. “We knew that at some point in time there would be a waitlist.”

‘From as far away as Springfield’

The Light recently obtained details of how MACI functions through a public records request to the Office for Refugees and Immigrants.

The program is split into two systems. The Massachusetts Center for Immigrant Representation largely focuses on clients in federal immigration detention. It’s a partnership with the Committee for Public Counsel Services, the state’s organization for public defenders, and largely works with detained offenders.

There are currently two active MACI intake systems for immigrants at two detention facilities in New England: Plymouth County Correctional Facility in Plymouth (the only immigrant detention facility in Massachusetts) and the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls, Rhode Island.

The program also has a network service. MIRA has contracts with 14 organizations across Massachusetts that place a MACI attorney at the organization, employed by MIRA but supervised by someone on-site. In New Bedford, two organizations have MACI contracts: the Community Economic Development Center of Southeastern Massachusetts and the Immigrants’ Assistance Center. Each receives $130,000 in reimbursement payments. Representatives for both organizations referred The Light to MIRA for comments on the program.

Several private law firms are also on the list, including Southborough-based Massa Viana Law, where Cothias works.

“We are now able to offer, to people who have not been able to afford legal representation before, quality legal representation in immigration courts,” said António Massa Viana, managing attorney at the firm. “The ultimate vision is that people in (immigration court) should be represented as opposed to walking in without knowing what their rights are.”

Cothias now has 32 clients, in line with program goals to have 30 to 35 per attorney. Massa Viana provides support.

To qualify, a person must have a household income at or below 125% of the federal poverty level and be applying in immigration court for one of a number of qualifying programs, including asylum, adjustment of status, Temporary Protected Status, and Special Immigrant Juvenile status. They must also have no open charges or convictions for 15 listed offenses, including felonies involving spousal or elderly abuse, child pornography, and kidnapping, and felonies or misdemeanors involving firearms.

Potential clients can either call the MACI hotline or visit the participating organizations for an in-person intake.

“At the beginning, we were getting people from at most a half-hour away,” Cothias said. “But recently, I have been getting clients from as far away as Springfield, and their hearing is in Connecticut.”

‘A political instrument’

Cothias said she has already seen the difference her work makes.

“The clients really don’t know what they can do for themselves,” she said. “They’re very thankful to have someone fighting for them.”

The odds are against people in immigration court, Nice says. She notes that immigration judges and prosecutors both work for the same boss: the U.S. Attorney General.

“This is a political instrument, so to readers who may be thinking everyone has a fair shot, they don’t,” she continued. “It’s not one against one, it’s two against one.”

That’s why the legal aid program is so important, Nice said.

“It’s an absolute bare minimum requirement to have an attorney,” she concluded. “There’s no fair shot unless they have one.”

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This story was originally published by The New Bedford Light and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.