OSI Launches Safe City Baltimore fund to support immigrants

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Baltimore Justice Report

OSI Launches Safe City Baltimore fund to support immigrants

Wednesday, April 19, 2017

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OSI-Baltimore to Launch SAFE CITY BALTIMORE:

An Immigrant Education and Defense Fund

 

Fund will support local communities threatened by Executive Orders

 

BALTIMORE – On Thursday, April 20th, Open Society Institute-Baltimore (OSI) will host a press conference to announce SAFE CITY BALTIMORE: An Immigrant Education and Defense Fund, established in collaboration with the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant and Multicultural Affairs (MIMA).

WHAT Launch of SAFE CITY BALTIMORE: An Immigrant Education and Defense Fund
WHERE The front steps of Sacred Heart of Jesus Church

600 S. Conkling St. (corner of Conkling St. and Foster Ave.)
Baltimore, MD

(rain location: inside the church)
WHEN Thursday, April 20, 2017

10 a.m. 
WHO Speakers will include:

Diana Morris, Director of OSI-Baltimore

Catalina Rodriguez-Lima, Director of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant and Multicultural Affairs (MIMA)

Zeke Cohen, City Councilman, 1st District

Brooke Lierman, State Delegate, 46th District

Miguel Carmona-Romero, Director of Youth and Children, St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church; immigrant and DACA holder

Anabel Dominguez, community leader

Rev. Bruce Lewandowski, Pastor, Sacred Heart of Jesus Church

OSI-Baltimore and MIMA created SAFE CITY BALTIMORE in response to the specific and urgent needs of Baltimore’s immigrant communities, as determined in a series of conversations with on-the-ground organizations including CASA de Maryland, Esperanza Center, CAIR Maryland, Pro Bono Resource Center of Maryland, the Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC), University of Maryland Law School Immigration Clinic, Tahirih Justice Center, and Kids in Need of Defense (KIND).

The fund will focus on three tiers of support, including “know your rights” outreach, legal assistance to help families develop safety plans (such as applying for passports for children who are citizens and executing power of attorney documents), documentation of feasible legal claims to stay in the country (requests for asylum and protection from human trafficking and domestic violence), and legal assistance to those in detention and facing deportation. For more detailed information and background about the fund, go to osibaltimore.org/safecitybaltimore.

SAFE CITY BALTIMORE will have an initial budget of $500,000, although the level of support the fund is able to provide to immigrant communities will be dependent on the level of funds raised. Open Society, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and Baltimore Community Foundation are among the funders that have already committed to support the fund.

Click here to contribute to SAFE CITY BALTIMORE.

Photo credit: © Chip Somodevilla/Getty

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