City committee reviews $200,000 Boston Foundation gift to expand immigrant legal access

Councilor Ben Weber, chair of the Boston City Council Committee on Civil Rights, Racial Equity, and Immigrant Advancement, opened a July 30, 2025, virtual hearing on docket 0890, which would authorize the city to accept and add $200,000 from the Boston Foundation to the Mayor's Office for Immigrant Advancement (MOIA) grant pool for immigrant services.

The grant money will be added to MOIA's existing FY25 immigration legal access grant pool to fund programs, events, and small grants that “enable immigrants to play an active role in the economic, civic, social, and cultural life of the city of Boston,” the docket summary stated and MOIA staff described during the hearing.

Monique Wen, executive director of the Mayor's Office for Immigrant Advancement, told the committee that MOIA’s operating work serves an estimated 200,000 immigrants in Boston and that the office engages in resource development to supplement its operating budget. “We work with attorneys that provide those consultations,” Wen said, describing MOIA’s long-running consultation program and how the grant pool is used to expand community programming.

Hannah Avila, legal access project manager at MOIA, described the legal access grant program as entering its third year. “This is our third year of doing these immigration legal access grants,” Avila said. She told the committee MOIA received 41 applications and selected 20 organizations for awards in the current FY25 grant round. Avila said the FY25 project period runs from April through November 2025 and that the office distributed an initial payment to grantees in April or May and a second payment in early July.

Committee members asked how the grants are structured and how quickly organizations receive funds. Avila said the FY25 awards were distributed through a grant application (RFP) process; MOIA added the Boston Foundation donation into the FY25 grant pool rather than directing it to a single organization. Wen described the FY25 grant pool as approximately $700,000 from the city's operating budget, which the Boston Foundation gift raised to about $900,000 for that grant cycle.

Councilors asked about gaps in legal representation and how smaller, neighborhood-based groups are connected to MOIA resources. Avila and Wen said MOIA maintains constituent services and community relations work to refer residents and to convene partners; they said MOIA continues outreach to community-based organizations and aims to improve metrics and reporting for future grant rounds.

Wen said the office is working to accelerate the grant timeline for FY26, moving application windows earlier so funds can be distributed prior to the winter holidays. She said MOIA is aiming to expand legal access funding this year and indicated a goal of “maybe about a million dollars” in legal access support, while noting final figures are still being worked out.

Committee members and MOIA officials also discussed the current landscape of private and philanthropic support: Avila said there is not currently a Greater Boston–wide pooled fund equivalent to the earlier Greater Boston Immigrant Defense Fund, which wound down in 2023, and that philanthropic support has not matched peak levels seen in prior federal administration periods.

No public testimony was offered at the hearing. Councilor Weber said he plans to bring docket 0890 forward for a committee vote at the next City Council meeting.

The hearing record includes details on grant timing, the number of applications and awards in the FY25 round, and MOIA’s ongoing outreach and reporting work; MOIA staff said they will share a press release listing the specific FY25 grantees with council members.