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Wu announces millions in new funding for immigrant services
Three major philanthropic organizations are committing to a public-private partnership that will help immigrants get legal services, basic necessities, and more.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu announced a new public-private partnership Tuesday meant to help immigrant families around the city, in addition to new grant funding directly from the city.
Three major philanthropic organizations, the Boston Foundation, the Barr Foundation, and the United Way of Massachusetts Bay, have committed more than $3.1 million for the partnership. The city is committing more than $1.3 million in grant funding through the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Advancement, according to the mayor.
Elected officials and nonprofit leaders referenced the Trump administration frequently when making the announcement inside City Hall.
“Whether your family has been here for generations or you are a new resident in our city, we will not let anyone storm into Boston and disrupt our community,” Wu said.
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The new funding will support a variety of efforts: helping immigrants secure legal services to navigate the naturalization process, providing mental health services, coordinating the delivery of basic resources like groceries and diapers, second-language learning, “know your rights” courses, emergency preparedness, and more, Wu said. She promoted a resource guide that the city created specifically for immigrants.
Wu, a frequent critic of the Trump administration and its immigration policies, framed the announcement as an extension of recent efforts she made to rein in ICE operations. Last month, Wu signed an executive order that barred federal officials from using city property for immigration enforcement purposes and directed local police to investigate any potential crimes committed by federal agents.
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City Councilor Ruthzee Louijeune said that she was spurred by an onslaught of questions from residents, asking what the city’s leaders were doing to stand up to the Trump administration. She reached out to people like Boston Foundation President Lee Pelton in order to marshal resources to strengthen the “social infrastructure” of the city.
“Vigilance requires resources, and in this moment, in order for us to be ready, in order for us to protect our residents, we have to have the resources to do that,” she said.
Some of those resources are coming from the United Way, which is activating its “United Response Fund” to deploy emergency assistance. It was last activated in the fall in response to disruptions to the SNAP program created by the government shutdown, United Way of Massachusetts Bay President Marty Martinez said.
The Boston Foundation is launching a new initiative called “Supporting Our Immigrant Neighbors” to fund a range of efforts, Pelton said.
Louijeune said that the livelihoods, and lives, of immigrants are at stake. She referenced recent news about a Haitian man who was arrested in Boston and died in ICE custody. His family and others allege that health care workers at an ICE detention center did not give him adequate treatment for a toothache, which led to sepsis.
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“There is absolutely no reason why someone should be dying from a toothache,” Louijeune said. “The harm of this administration knows no bounds.”
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