The right to legal representation is fundamental to our judicial system. However, there are no free public lawyers for immigration cases, unlike in our criminal system. Without legal advice, immigration detainees do not understand their basic rights and remain detained for months or years, even with U.S. citizen children and spouses and valid claims for release and legal status. Due to recent changes in immigration law and policy, the number of immigrants in detention is steadily growing.

PAIR’s Detention Program, launched in 1990, is the leading pro bono program in Massachusetts serving immigration detainees. PAIR is committed to educating detainees and assisting those whose detention is unjustified by counseling, advising, and representing over 600 detainees each year from around the world. We give Know Your Rights Presentations inside the jails; distribute legal materials and PAIR's Self-Help Manual; represent detainees through PAIR staff attorneys or pro bono attorneys whom PAIR has recruited, trained and mentored; and make referrals to our Reduced-Fee Panel for those with resources.

PAIR staff attorneys accomplish this work and, in addition, manage the PAIR Pro Bono Law Firm Panel, through which PAIR trains and mentors pro bono attorneys – who are not otherwise immigration lawyers – and the PAIR Pro Bono AILA Panel, launched in 2007, through which PAIR collaborates with the New England Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association to recruit, train, and mentor AILA pro bono immigration attorneys; the Boston Immigration Court sponsors trainings for this program. PAIR also collaborates with five area law schools to train law students in immigration detention work.

PAIR staff and pro bono attorneys also respond to immigration raids, ever since the Suffolk Downs raid in 1988 that led to PAIR’s formation. PAIR represented seventy factory workers in the New Bedford raid in 2007 and has represented immigrant workers detained in other raids as well.

 

You can make a difference!
To learn more about or get involved with the pro bono detention programs, contact Antonio Castro Aranda.

 

Upcoming Trainings
Learn about scheduled PAIR trainings in immigration topics and how to RSVP here.

 

Government and Detention Contacts

Boston Immigration Court
John F. Kennedy Federal Building
15 New Sudbury Street, Room 320
Boston, MA 02203
(617) 565-3080

Detention and Removal Operations, Burlington Field Office: (781) 359-7500

DHS Immigration Detention Facilities in New England:

Barnstable County Correctional Facility 6000 Sheriff's Place Bourne, MA 02532 (508) 563-4418 Bristol County Correctional Facility 400 Faunce Corner Road North Dartmouth, MA 02747 (508) 995-1311 Cumberland County Jail 50 County Way Portland, ME 04102 (207) 724-5939 Essex County Correctional Facility 20 Manning Avenue Middleton, MA 01949 (978) 750-1900 FMC Devens P.O. Box 879 Ayer, MA 01432 (978) 796-1000 Franklin County Correctional Facility 160 Elm Street Greenfield, MA 01301 (413) 774-4014

Hartford Correctional Center 177 Weston Street Hartford, CT 06120 (860) 240-1800 Norfolk County P.O. Box 149, 200 West Street Dedham, MA 02027 (781) 329-3705 Plymouth County Correctional Facility 26 Long Pond Road Plymouth, MA 02360 (508) 830-6240 Strafford County Department of Corrections 266 County Farm Road Dover, New Hampshire 03820 (603) 742-3310 Suffolk County House of Corrections 20 Bradston Street Boston, MA 02118 (617) 635-1000