The Colibrí Fellowship, first established in Illinois in 2022, responds to a critical shortage in immigration legal services: across the United States, each charitable immigration legal provider must serve approximately 1,413 undocumented immigrants. To address this gap, TRP developed the Fellowship program to train nonprofit professionals to become Department of Justice (DOJ) Accredited Representatives—qualified non-attorneys who can legally represent immigrants in immigration proceedings. In just three years, the Fellowship has successfully trained 40 professionals, expanding Illinois’s pool of accredited representatives by more than 10%.
“The demand for immigration legal services in New England only continues to grow and has stretched beyond the current capacity of our dedicated non-profit providers, especially when it comes to bilingual and bicultural support. We are looking forward to collaborating with our future fellows to create future accredited representatives and ultimately, ensure that all immigrant communities have access to the legal assistance they deserve.” MIRA’s Executive Director Liz Sweet