On Friday, Senator Ed Markey introduced the Securing Help for Immigrants Through Education and Legal Development (SHIELD) Act of 2026. If enacted, this bill would help build critical infrastructure and capacity to expand the availability of legal services for those facing deportation by:
- Allocating $100 million for a grant program to develop a legal services workforce scaled to meet the representation needs of people facing deportation, with long-term capacity to provide high-quality, comprehensive, and linguistically appropriate legal services;
- Providing four-year renewable competitive grants through the Department of Justice’s Office of Access to Justice to state and local governments, nonprofits, and educational institutions; and
- Prioritizing support for preexisting state and local programs needing additional funding for sustainability, and also focus on underserved areas where state and local investments are scarce despite substantial need
Patricia Sobalvarro, the Executive Director of Agencia ALPHA, and Liz Sweet, MIRA’s Executive Director, were invited by Senator Markey to join him and speak at a press conference at the JFK Federal Building to introduce the bill and discuss how important it was to communities here in Massachusetts and across the country. The Senator made clear why this is legislation is needed by so many families and communities:
Donald Trump and his administration are violating immigrants’ civil rights through unlawful detentions and removals. DHS has been detaining immigrants in horrifying conditions and denying them the due process the law requires. In the face of these attacks, immigrants are being forced to defend themselves in court without a lawyer. There are five-year-old children sitting in courtrooms alone – a burden no child should have to face. Access to legal counsel can be life-changing for the immigrant community. We must pass my SHIELD Act, which invests in immigrant legal defenders and ensures immigrants get the legal assistance they need.
Ms. Solbavarro spoke movingly about the many hardships she has seen among families facing separation because of our immigration enforcement policies, and noted that, “the SHIELD Act is not just policy; for many, it is a life-line and last chance for due process.”
While Massachusetts has recently joined a number of states in providing legal services for those facing life-changing deportation cases, these funds are not nearly sufficient to cover the growing need. Within a year of taking office, President Trump has grown our immigrant detainee population from 40,000 to over 66,000 while his first 6 months in office saw a 50% increase in the number of cases referred to immigration court. Here in Massachusetts, 43% of immigrants facing deportation must do so without an attorney because they are simply not available or affordable. While the MACI program is making a significant dent in this depressing statistic, it is not able to keep up with the billions that Congress poured into federal civil immigration enforcement through the “One Big Beautiful Bill”, which was anything but beautiful to thousands of families across the Commonwealth.
MIRA deeply appreciates Senator Markey’s introduction of the SHIELD Act. Legal representation is a vital component of justice, and these resources would be welcome under any administration. With the current supercharged enforcement actions of the Trump Administration, our immigrant communities have never needed more support than now.
Press Conference Livestream:
Vanguard: SHIELD Act Introduced to Expand Legal Aid for Immigrants Facing Deportation