In 2003 LIRS made Asylum and Immigration grants to 29 organizations, of which 27 provide legal services, including 15 that have a main focus on people in immigration detention. Seven legal service programs at LIRS resettlement affiliates were funded. The grants, which are made jointly with Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, totaled $263,000. LIRS Asylum and Immigration grants support community-based programs that are serving and advocating for vulnerable immigrants such as those in immigration detention, asylum seekers, children, survivors of torture, and non-citizen Muslims, Arabs and South Asians needing immigration services.

These grantees reported the following activities last year:

• Provided 1,183 legal orientation presentations to immigration detainees, reaching approximately 12,225 adults and 2,659 children.
• Opened case files on 5,232 detained individuals and 10,127 nondetained immigrants.
• Served 1,505 children, including 752 who were detained.
• Served 906 survivors or torture, of whom 325 were in INS detention.
• Provided services to asylum seekers and other vulnerable immigrants from 125 different countries.

This year's grantees are as follows, in order by state under each category:

Detention Projects

Arizona
Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project, Inc., Florence

California
Casa Cornelia Law Center, San Diego

Colorado
Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network (RMIAN), Denver

District of Columbia
Capital Area Immigrants' Rights Coalition

Massachusetts
Political Asylum/Immigration Representation Project (PAIR), Boston
Refugee Immigration Ministries (RIM), Malden

Michigan
Freedom House, Detroit

Minnesota
Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota and Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights, St. Paul

Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania Immigration Resource Center (PIRC), York

Texas
Political Asylum Project of Austin, Inc. (PAPA), Austin
Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, El Paso
Casa de Proyecto Libertad, Harlingen
GANO/CARECEN, Houston

Vermont
Vermont Refugee Assistance, Montpelier

Washington
Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, Seattle

Legal, Social or Community Education Projects

Arizona
Asylum Project of Southern Arizona (APSA), Tuscon

Hawaii
Na Loio—Immigrant Rights and Public Interest Legal Center, Honolulu

Illinois
Interfaith Refugee & Immigration Ministries, Chicago
The Immigration Project, Granite City

Maine
Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project, Portland

Massachusetts
Lutheran Community Services of New England, West Springfield
Lutheran Community Services of New England Refugee and Immigrant Services, Worcester

Nebraska
Interfaith Immigration Services of Nebraska (LFS of Nebraska), Omaha

New Jersey
El Centro Hispanoamericano, Plainfield
Lutheran Social Ministries of New Jersey, Trenton

New York
VIVE, Inc., Buffalo
Lutheran Family and Community Services Refugee and Immigration Program, New York City

Pennsylvania
Lutheran Children and Family Services of Eastern Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

Texas
Citizens and Immigrants for Equal Justice (CIEJ), Mesquite

See lists of grantees from other years: 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2002, 2001.
See contact information for current grantees.
Read more about LIRS's Asylum and Immigration network.

Page updated September 17, 2007.