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Immigrant advocates urge council to restore and expand funding for legal services and language access
Summary
Multiple immigrant-serving organizations and clients testified that immigration legal services, interpretation and culturally competent wraparound supports are urgent priorities in the proposed fiscal 2026 budget. Speakers asked the council to fund the mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, immigration legal defense, and sustained language access.
Immigrant leaders and service providers told the Budget and Appropriations Committee that Baltimore must increase and stabilize funding for immigration legal services, language access and community‑based supports amid heightened immigration enforcement.
Emma Waznaga of the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights said the Safe City Baltimore program “has been a lifeline” and urged increased funding for immigration legal services. “Since the launch of the Safe City Baltimore program in 2017, our immigration legal services have been able to defend over 230 city residents,” she said, adding that legal defense allowed a recently detained long‑term resident to be reunited with his family.
Nut graf: Multiple organizations — including CASA, World Relief Baltimore, the Baltimore New Americans Access Coalition (BNAC) and others — asked the council to restore or increase budget lines that support legal representation, wraparound services and interpretation so immigrant families can access benefits, avoid deportation and remain connected to employment and schooling.
Julia Fernandez, speaking on behalf of CASA, said her organization helped a pregnant homeless woman and urged sustained investment in programs that stabilize families. Laurie Covert (director of immigration legal services at World Relief Baltimore) described winning an immigration status approval after an eight‑year wait and said legal representation is prevention against family separation. Ricardo Ortiz (Immigrant Self Improvement Support Center) and Juliana Valencia Banks (mayor’s Hispanic Commission member) asked for continued and dedicated funding for legal services, health, housing and interpretation.
Speakers also asked the council to fund in‑language outreach and to sustain programs that help immigrants navigate public benefits, apply for naturalization and access workforce supports; several described concrete case outcomes from programs they asked the council to fund. There were no committee actions taken at Taxpayers Night; organizations requested the council consider line‑item restorations or enhancements during the upcoming hearings.
Ending: Advocates asked the council to treat immigrant-serving budgets as long‑term investments in workforce, schools and neighborhood stability and to ensure budget lines for legal representation and interpretation are restored or made recurring.
