Deadline: 1 September 2019
Borealis Philanthropy is seeking applications for its “Immigration Litigation Fund (ILF)” that is a national funder collaborative whose goal is to ensure that the nation’s immigration enforcement system is fair, humane, and prioritizes the civil and human rights of those vulnerable to deportation.
The fund supports impact litigation efforts that challenge discriminatory, unlawful, and overly punitive immigration enforcement policies and practices at any stage of the enforcement trajectory from identification and apprehension, to detention and removal, as well as efforts to exclude certain immigrants from entering the country.
Funding Priorities
- In 2019, ILF’s funding will prioritize impact litigation that focuses on efforts to deport or exclude immigrants, migrants, and those seeking humanitarian protections.
- ILF anticipates that litigation efforts initiated to defend the rights of immigrants vulnerable to enhanced deportation or exclusion efforts may include, but are not limited to, issues related to:
- Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE accountability)
- FOIA litigation
- Obstacles to adjust status, particularly for those from countries deemed hostile to the United States
- Intersections of immigration enforcement and national security
- Access to counsel
- Withholding of state or federal funding to cities, campuses, or other locations that fail to cooperate with deportation efforts
- Efforts to expand the use of expedited removal
- Deportation related to criminal convictions
- Immigration detention including conditions of confinement, bond, parole, sexual misconduct, family detention, detention of minors, family separation
- ICE raids including those in the workplace, homes, courthouses, or “sensitive locations” such as schools, hospitals, or houses of worship
- Use of state and local government databases to identify immigrants from deportation
- Failure to provide humanitarian protection to those fleeing persecution, violence, or
- disaster including those attempting to enter the country and those already residing in the United States
- Prosecution of those who refuse to cooperate with enforcement initiatives
- Criminal prosecutions for entry or re-entry
Funding Information
Applicants to the ILF can request up to $75,000 in funding.
Eligibility Criteria
- Public interest legal groups, advocates, and community-based organizations may apply if they are engaged in:
- Impact litigation;
- Advocacy and organizing connected to impact litigation; or
- Communications efforts connected to impact litigation.
What the ILF Will Fund:
The ILF provides time-limited, project support for funding needs related to:
- Impact litigation including but not limited to staff time, some organizational overhead (5%), travel, research, filing fees, interpreter and translation costs. Impact litigation must be focused on immigration enforcement issues;
- Convenings meant to advance coordination and strategy on an issue related to impact litigation efforts;
- Legal trainings and training materials on immigration enforcement related issues;
- Organizing and communications efforts that are related to impact litigation efforts.
How to Apply
Applicants can apply online via given website.
For more information, please visit https://borealisphilanthropy.org/grantmaking/immigration-legal-strategy-support-fund/