HomeMy WebLinkAboutMemo - Mail Packet - 9/20/2022 - Memorandum From Jc Ward And Leo Escalante Re: Immigration Legal Fund Pilot Quarterly Report - Q2 2022
281 North College Avenue
P.O. Box 580
Fort Collins, CO 80522.0580
970.221.6376
970.224.6134 - fax
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Immigration Legal Fund Quarterly Report – Q2 2022
Planning, Development & Transportation
MEMORANDUM
DATE: September 12, 2022
TO: Mayor Arndt and City Councilmembers
THRU: Kelly DiMartino, City Manager
Caryn Champine, Director, Planning, Development & Transportation
Paul Sizemore, Director, Community Development & Neighborhood Services
FROM: JC Ward, Sr. City Planner, Neighborhood Services
Leo Escalante, Program Coordinator, Neighborhood Services
RE: Immigration Legal Fund Pilot Quarterly Report – Q2 2022
This memo aims to provide City Council members with an update on activities performed and opportunities
identified as part of the implementation of the City of Fort Collins Immigration Legal Fund for the period April
2022 to June 2022.
Immigration Legal Fund Quarterly Report Overview
The City of Fort Collins Immigration Legal fund 12-month metrics show that the pilot program is outperforming.
Grant recipients have funded more cases with ILF funding than initial estimates. However, two out of three
grant recipients, Interfaith Solidarity and Accompaniment Coalition (ISAAC) and Rocky Mountain Immigrant
Advocacy Network (RMAIN), have depleted their ILF funding with six months left in the pilot program and are
no longer able to take on new cases under the ILF. As such, data for their following quarterly report will be
limited. City staff will provide City Council members with a 12-month assessment of the pilot program this fall.
Grant Recipients
Grant recipient’s progress for activities during April – June 2022 (Table 1)
Table 1 - Grant Recipient’ Progress – Q1 (April – June 2022)
Recipient Quarterly Progress (Highlights)
Alianza
NORCO
Began meeting with clients for “Brief Advice” consultation meetings to discuss possible
immigration relief.
ISAAC Continued service delivery under the ILF through their scholarship model. They have
exhausted their funding with 6 months left in the pilot program.
RMIAN Continued service delivery and began representing new clients. RMIAN has seen an
increase in the request for their services.
Evaluation Criteria
Metrics from all grant recipients and service providers from January through March 2022 and cumulative pilot
program from October 2021 through June 2022 (Table 2)
DocuSign Envelope ID: 9931F277-4211-4AF8-940A-2586F11F8E44
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Immigration Legal Fund Quarterly Report – Q2 2022
• Quarter 2 2022 Outputs (indicators of the amount of service provided)
o 13 people receiving direct representation
8 adults (over age 21): Most adults receiving advice on Removal Cancellation
5 Children: Most children pursuing Lawful Permanent Residence after obtaining Special
Immigrant Juvenile Status
Table 2 – Grant Recipients’ Metrics for All Cases*
Case Type
Q2 – 2022
Adults
Q2 – 2022
Children/
Youth
Total Cases
(Q3 2021 –
Q2 2022)
Adults
Total Cases
(Q3 2021 -
Q2 2022)
Children/
Youth
U Visa
victims of crime
3 0 13 0
Asylum
victims of persecution or fear of harm or death upon
return to home country
0 2 4 4
Special Immigrant Juvenile Status
abused, neglected, or abandoned children
0 5 0 18
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals
youth who arrived in the U.S. during a specified time
period
1 0 3 0
Violence Against Women Act Visa
victims of domestic violence or crimes outlined in the
Violence Against Women Act
2 0 5 0
T Visa/Office of Trafficking In Persons
victims of human trafficking
1 0 1 2
Lawful Permanent Resident (LPR)
Permanent authorization to live in the United States
as a non-citizen (sometimes known as “green card”
residents)
1 3 3 5
Removal Cancellation
status adjustment by an immigration judge from
‘subject to deportation’ to ‘lawful admittance for
permanent residence’ under certain circumstances
3 0 4 0
I-765 Employment Authorization
Initial, replacement, or renewal work permit that gives
applicants permission to work in the U.S.
1 0 2 0
Detention/Deportation 4 0 4 0
Naturalization
Process to become U.S. citizen if born outside of the
U.S.
6 0 7 0
Column Total 22 10 46 29
Combined Adult & Youth Case Total 32 75
DocuSign Envelope ID: 9931F277-4211-4AF8-940A-2586F11F8E44
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Immigration Legal Fund Quarterly Report – Q2 2022
Figure 1 - Grant Recipients' Metrics for All Cases
• Gaps - measures number of applicants ineligible for participation and reason for ineligibility (Table 4)
Table 3 - Program Gaps
Program Gaps No. of Cases Ineligible for
Participation in Q2 2022
No. of Cases Ineligible
for Participation Q4
2021 – Q2 2022
Cases Ineligible due to 12-Month Residency
Requirement 29
39
• Efficiency – resources required to achieve certain outcomes are unknown for this quarter. Staff will
follow up with Grant Recipients to track this for future reporting.
Impacts Beyond Metrics
To support qualitative measures of success through the narrative of participants, Grant Recipients shared
additional information about program impacts. Highlights this quarter include:
- Three recipients of ISAAC’s scholarships were approved for asylum; this includes two minors ages 17
and 9 and one mother of a three-year-old child.
- Participants who had previously received assistance with ILF funding continue making progress on their
pathway to legal status, going from SIJS to becoming eligible for Legal Permanent Residence or from
having a U-Visa or Asylum application to becoming eligible for work authorization or Legal Permanent
Residence.
- Grant Recipient’s attorneys provided legal assistance to a Fort Collins resident who had been in
detention at the Aurora ICE Facility for two weeks and who, after receiving legal guidance, elected to
request an order of removal.
- One adult female applicant who has been working on her case for five years and is housing insecure
received additional funding to continue pushing her case forward.
Grant recipients continue seeing an increase in the demand for their services, due in part to a rise in the
referrals among agencies and the growing trust from returning program participants. Program metrics show
that ILF funding continues to be used to serve vulnerable community members such as victims of domestic
violence, unaccompanied minors, asylum seekers, etc. Nonetheless, two grant recipients have exhausted their
funds which could negatively impact the continuity and outcome of the participants’ cases.
U Visa Asylum SIJS DACA*VAWA T Visa*LPR I-765*Naturaliz
ation*
Removal
Cancellat
ion*
Detentio
n/Deport
ation
Q4 2021 5 4 4 2 2 1 1 0 0 1 0
Q1 2022 5 2 9 0 1 2 3 1 1 0 0
Q2 2022 3 2 5 1 2 1 4 1 6 3 4
0
2
4
6
8
10
ILF Case Types
Quarter 4 2021 -Quarter 2 2022
*No quarterly comparison available due to lack of cases in each quarter.
DocuSign Envelope ID: 9931F277-4211-4AF8-940A-2586F11F8E44
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Immigration Legal Fund Quarterly Report – Q2 2022
Information about the Immigration Legal Fund pilot is available to the public at
https://www.fcgov.com/neighborhoodservices/immigration-legal-fund.
Immigration Legal Fund Pilot 12-month Update
The 18-month pilot Immigration Legal Fund was approved by Fort Collins City Council in July 2021 in the
amount of $150,000. Three grant recipients have been providing services under the ILF since 2021. As of
September 1, 2022, two of the three grant recipients are out of funds but have waitlists for residents seeking
legal services. The overall expenditures we have seen in the last 12 months for the pilot program align with the
cost projection for unmet community need assessed as part of the initial pilot proposal, which ranged from
$180,000 to $350,000 for an 18-month pilot. Although the pilot is designed as an 18-month endeavor, we will
not receive additional data from the two grant recipients that are currently out of ILF funding after September 1,
2022.
18-month Pilot Grant Program Estimated Results compared to 12-month Actual Results
Total Number
of Cases
Detention -
Deportation
Cases &
Removal
Cancellation
$6,000/case
Special
Immigrant
Juvenile
Status
Cases (SIJS)
$4,000/case
Affirmative
Cases
(DACA, LPR,
Naturalization,
Asylum)
$1,000/case
Funding
Range
18-month
Pilot
Funding
Example
fom 2021
Up to 45 15-20 0-5 0-20 $180,000-
250,000
Actual #
cases in
12-month
pilot
75
(167% of
estimated)
8
(40% of
estimated)
18
(360% of
estimated)
26
(130% of
estimated)
$150,000
Lessons learned in the first 12 months of the 18-month pilot:
• Due to the 12-month residency restriction on participation in the pilot, we were unable to assist almost
all asylum seekers (who must file for asylum status within 12 months of arriving in the U.S.). The few
asylum cases resolved under the pilot program were for youth participants. Based on reporting from
grant recipients, there were 29 asylum seeking residents of Fort Collins who needed services during
the first year of the pilot but were ineligible for participation due to the residency restriction. Asylum
seekers are immigrants who fear death or imminent bodily harm upon return to their home country.
• Case types related to human trafficking, violence against women, and victims of violent crime were not
calculated in the initial pilot proposal as a distinct set of case types but make up a significant portion of
the need for immigration legal services in Fort Collins. Over the last 12 months, service providers have
handled 21 cases (28% of total cases) from victims asserting these protections. Program participants
asserting these protections also demonstrate greater intersectional vulnerabilities related to identity
than participants in any other case type.
• Overall unmet community need for immigration legal services was underestimated in general and in the
SIJS and VAWA (Violence Against Women) case types. As previously indicated, this is likely due to the
reluctance of undocumented community members to self-identify to government entities.
DocuSign Envelope ID: 9931F277-4211-4AF8-940A-2586F11F8E44
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Immigration Legal Fund Quarterly Report – Q2 2022
• The majority of adult participants in the first year of the pilot have been residents of Fort Collins for
more than five years with several residing in this community for 20 years or more.
• All participants in the pilot to date had “very low household income” as defined by HUD (50% or less
than area median income of $107,300). In SIJS cases, some older children are the primary earners for
their household and younger siblings.
DocuSign Envelope ID: 9931F277-4211-4AF8-940A-2586F11F8E44