Committee advances Catalina Rodriguez Lima as director of Baltimore's Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs

The Baltimore City Legislative Investigations Committee on Friday advanced the executive nomination of Catalina Rodriguez Lima to be director of the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs, voting 4-0 with one member absent. The motion to advance the nomination was moved by Councilman Brandon M. Scott Glover and seconded by Council Vice President Sharon Green Middleton; Councilman Isaac Easter Schleifer, Councilman Glover, Vice President Middleton and Councilman Gray recorded votes in the affirmative while Councilman Dorsey was marked absent. The nomination will be considered by the full City Council at its next meeting on Monday.

Rodriguez Lima told the committee she is “deeply grateful for the opportunity to be considered for confirmation as the first official director of the mayor's office of immigrant affairs,” and reviewed her 14 years of city service and the office's work. Rodriguez Lima said she has led the office through periods of federal policy changes and the COVID-19 pandemic and pushed for making the office permanent in city government.

Rodriguez Lima summarized program accomplishments under her leadership, saying the office manages the city's language access program, works with 18 city agencies, and operates two core programs: Safe City Baltimore and the Baltimore New American Access Coalition. She told the committee the office facilitated "34,000 minutes of telephonic interpretation across 32 languages, translated 500 vital documents, and trained over 3,800 employees" in the last year. She said BNAC (referred to in the presentation as the Baltimore New American Access Coalition) has enrolled "approximately 900 households representing more than 3,000 residents across 25 ZIP codes and 32 countries of origin." Rodriguez Lima also described a public-private Baltimore Immigrant Community Fund that raised more than $2,000,000 to assist victims and survivors of the Key Bridge collapse.

In remarks to the committee, Rodriguez Lima framed the office's mission as ensuring that immigrants "have the same opportunities and services as any other resident, regardless of language, immigration status, or country of origin." She thanked Mayor Brandon Scott for his support and asked the council to confirm her so the office's work would continue as a permanent city function.

Committee members offered brief praise during the meeting and recorded their votes to advance the nomination. There was no formal opposition in the committee record. The full City Council will take up the confirmation at its next meeting on Monday.