Baltimore council hears request to expand language access and immigrant legal services

Baltimore City Council heard a presentation from Catalina Rodriguez Lima, director of the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs (MEMA), on the office's language-access work, community outreach and plans to expand immigration legal services.

MEMA told the council it now serves roughly 50,000 foreign‑born Baltimore residents and manages the city's language access program after a recently adopted local law (referred to in the presentation as Title 6). Director Catalina Rodriguez Lima said MEMA's role is to expand the capacity of service-delivery agencies rather than directly provide all services.

The presentation and ensuing council discussion focused on three immediate issues: (1) expanding language‑access support across city agencies, (2) a citywide legal‑services strategy called Safe City Baltimore, and (3) a request from Councilwoman Ramos for additional budget allocations for legal services and community support.

Rodriguez Lima highlighted recent and planned work: MEMA has four full‑time staff and two part‑time contractors; it onboarded nine agencies in 2024 and is supporting nine additional agencies (bringing the current total cited to 18) with the goal of reaching 25 agencies across cohorts 3 and 4. The office reported translating 283 “vital documents” into 14 languages, facilitating more than 2,800 in‑person or virtual interactions, and training over 1,700 city employees through a Workday language‑access module. MEMA said it reached more than 55,000 social media users and about 7,000 newsletter subscribers in five languages, and hosted a Baltimore immigration summit that drew nearly 300 participants.

On language access, Rodriguez Lima described…