Annual Report

 

About ILAP

For more than 30 years, the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project (ILAP) has provided free immigration legal services to people in Maine who could not otherwise afford an immigration attorney, helping them understand their options, protect their rights, and pursue their goals. As Maine’s only statewide nonprofit focused solely on immigration law, we reach thousands of people in every county in Maine through our three core program areas.

OUR PROGRAM AREAS

Direct Legal Services

Free immigration legal services, from full representation to limited assistance and pro bono partnerships, prioritized to make the greatest impact.

Education & Outreach

Accurate, timely, and translated legal information that helps communities and service providers understand immigrants’ rights and shifting law and policy.

Advocacy

Local, state, and federal systemic advocacy, informed by what we see through direct legal work, to safeguard due process and strengthen legal protections for immigrant communities.

WHO WE SERVE

ILAP serves immigrants across Maine with incomes up to 200% of the federal poverty guidelines, making sure cost is never a barrier to expert legal help. In 2025, our clients came from more than 90 countries and lived in all of Maine’s sixteen counties, with the largest numbers in Cumberland (59%), Androscoggin (14%), and York (12%).

Message from ILAP’s Leaders

Dear Friends, 

In 2025, the federal administration’s extremist mass deportation agenda targeted immigrants in Maine and across the country, putting lives at risk, separating families, and leaving communities living in terror.

During this unprecedented year, ILAP was essential in helping Maine’s immigrant communities navigate the rapidly changing environment, gain legal protections, and secure freedom from detention. In addition to legal services, our outreach work helped ensure that communities knew their rights and were prepared for the possibility of enforcement. We also helped pass new state laws aimed at maximizing local protections against ICE and Border Patrol while we continued to demand that Congress act.

ILAP staff and volunteers provided direct legal services and outreach to nearly 6,000 people in 2025 and impacted thousands more through our systemic advocacy. Pro Bono attorneys donated almost 3,000 hours of their time, valued at more than $1 million, assisting clients in their asylum and Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) cases.

While continuing our core legal services, we developed innovative projects to address emerging needs, including relaunching our Detention Project to assist Maine immigrants who are detained by ICE and Border Patrol, and we hired a dedicated Outreach Attorney to deliver critical information to communities and partners.

Your advocacy, solidarity, and support are helping us meet the moment, as Maine’s immigrant communities continue to turn to ILAP for assistance. Together we will continue to fight back against the administration’s cruelty and chaos while we push forward with our vision of a just and humane immigration system.

Thank you for your partnership and support!

In solidarity,

Sue Roche headshot in black and white

Sue Roche, Esq.
Executive Director

Tom Douglas headshot in black and white

Thomas Douglas, Esq.
Board President

 

Core Program Areas: 2025 Impact

DIRECT LEGAL SERVICES

ILAP’s direct legal services are the backbone of our work. In 2025, as the risk of detention grew and pathways to protection narrowed, we expanded both full and limited representation to meet as much of that demand as we could.

People received immigration legal services in 2025

Including 388 full representation cases and 1,625 limited (pro se) representation cases.

 

Approval rate for full representation cases with a final decision

Number served doesn’t always match case count: some people have multiple cases, some cases cover multiple people.

EDUCATION & OUTREACH

When policies change quickly, accurate information is its own form of defense. In 2025, we made sure immigrant communities and service providers had clear, translated legal guidance they could trust.

Community members and service providers reached

 

Legal education and outreach events held across the state

Online, ilapmaine.org drew 290,791 visits to its translated self-help materials, and our Golden Door newsletter reached 4,360 subscribers.

ADVOCACY

ILAP’s advocacy is grounded in what we see every day through our legal work. In 2025, that meant confronting rising enforcement and protecting due process.

Coalition letters signed with state and national partners advocating for the rights of immigrant communities in Maine and beyond

 

Appearances in state and national media spotlighting what’s happening in Maine

OUR PROJECTS

MEETING EMERGING NEEDS

Our projects meet emerging and specialized needs, including for people seeking asylum, immigrant children and youth, immigrants in rural Maine, and people in detention. Through strategic models including limited-assistance legal clinics, group education, and pro bono partnerships, we reach more people and stretch our capacity further.

Asylum Assistance & Legal Orientation Program (AALOP)

In 2025, AALOP held 30 legal education sessions for 533 asylum seekers, screened 588 individuals for their legal options, and helped 265 people file their asylum applications. The program ensures more people seeking asylum have access to support from qualified immigration attorneys to file their applications.

PRO BONO POWER
Across our programs, from asylum to cases for immigrant children and youth, volunteer attorneys gave 2,932 hours in 2025, worth more than $1 million.

CHANGE OF VENUE CLINIC: A Cross-Team Effort
Immigration court cases often stay in the state where they started, sometimes thousands of miles from Maine. In 2025, ILAP filed 84 motions to move cases to the court serving Maine, so people could appear closer to home and avoid being ordered deported simply because they could not get to a distant court hearing.

Asylum Pro Bono Panel

ILAP recruits, trains, and mentors volunteer attorneys to represent clients through the full asylum process, expanding the number of asylum seekers in Maine who have access to a lawyer.

Detention Project

As immigration enforcement in our state increased, ILAP worked with partners to provide legal screenings, pro se advice, and full representation to individuals detained by ICE in local jails. We also hired a dedicated detention attorney and began using federal litigation to challenge detention.

Story of Impact

A survivor of domestic violence and trafficking was detained by ICE while pursuing asylum. The government sought to deport her to a third country. On an expedited timeline, ILAP’s Detention Project worked with a psychological expert and gathered evidence showing she would face serious danger there. She won a grant of withholding of removal and now can remain safely in the United States.

Immigrant Children’s Project

Each year, ILAP represents and supports more than 250 children and youth pursuing Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS). In 2025, the project continued to respond to the high level of need among unaccompanied immigrant teens in greater Portland through office hours, pro bono partnerships, and individualized representation and advocacy.

Story of Impact

A teenager came to the United States alone at 15 after being abandoned by her parents. When the government failed to properly notify her of her court hearing, she was ordered removed. ILAP’s Immigrant Children’s Project helped her get that order rescinded and obtain SIJS. She has since graduated from high school and is building her future here in Maine.

Rural Maine Project

Reaching farmworkers and other immigrants outside Maine’s urban centers, the project held 28 outreach events, shared materials with 609 people, and provided screenings or legal services to 277 people, including to victims of labor exploitation and trafficking.

Story of Impact

A teen was recruited to a rural Maine farm with promises of work, housing, and transportation. After he was detained on his way to work, ILAP’s Rural Maine and Detention Projects responded quickly, connecting him with representation to secure his freedom from detention. An ILAP lawyer screened his case, identified his eligibility for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS), and now represents him as he pursues lawful status and greater stability.

Forms Assistance Program

Through clinics and individualized assistance in Portland and Lewiston, this program helps people complete and file immigration applications on their own, from Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to work permits. In 2025, that included pro se TPS assistance for 104 people.

2025 Advocacy wins

As indiscriminate immigration enforcement escalated in Maine in 2025, ILAP tracked enforcement patterns and saw the role Maine’s state and local law enforcement were playing. In response, ILAP helped pass LD 1971, a state law which bars Maine law enforcement from diverting Maine’s resources to assist the federal administration with mass enforcement and deportation. ILAP also supported advocates in ending the 287(g) agreement in Wells and in passing a first-of-its-kind anti-ICE ordinance in Rockland.

In 2025, ILAP also helped pass a state bill that strengthens protections for at-risk noncitizen children seeking Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS), a process which begins in state court for children who have been abused, neglected, or abandoned by a parent.

IMMIGRATION POLICY UPDATES

ILAP is committed to helping our community understand the rapidly-changing immigration policy environment and what it means for individuals, families, and for Maine. In 2025, ILAP published weekly legal and policy updates during the first 100 days of the new administration and monthly updates after that.

2025 Financials

For transparency and accountability to our donors and supporters, ILAP undergoes an annual external audit. The figures below are drawn from audited financial statements from January 1 to December 31, 2025.

Revenue

Expenses

*In-kind contributions and Program expenses include the value of donated pro bono attorney time.

**ILAP experienced a large surplus in 2025 due to increased donations during a time of heightened immigration enforcement activity. We hired new positions later in the year to address the increased demand for services.

Join the Movement for Immigrant Justice

Want to help protect immigrant families and build a more just future for Maine?

Here’s how you can help today:

Donate

Help fund the legal work and advocacy that immigrant families across Maine rely on.

Advocate

Speak out and take action to protect immigrant rights and shape policy.

Volunteer

Offer your time, skills, or legal expertise in support of immigrant clients.

Connect

Subscribe to our newsletters and follow us on our social media channels to stay informed and for updates about how to take action.

 
 

NEW IN 2026: ILAP RESILIENCE CIRCLE

A Business Partnership for a Stronger Maine

Maine’s economy is deeply connected to its immigrant communities. Launched in 2026, the Resilience Circle brings together businesses that share a stake in immigrants being able to live and work with stability, dignity, and legal protection. Members receive a window decal and digital badge and are invited to a business roundtable covering Maine’s immigration landscape, what ILAP is working on, and how businesses can support their employees and communities. Members will also be listed on ILAP’s Resilience Circle webpage and recognized in next year’s annual report. There is no minimum to join. Businesses of all sizes are welcome.

To learn more, write to us at contact@ilapmaine.org.

With Gratitude

The work on this page was possible because donors, volunteer attorneys, community partners, and advocates chose to stand with immigrant communities in Maine. In a year when many immigrant families faced real fear and uncertainty, your steadiness helped make sure people had somewhere to turn. To everyone who offered their time, expertise, or support in 2025: thank you.

THE INDIA STREET SOCIETY

ILAP’s giving circles now share one home: the India Street Society, a community of supporters who sustain this work through monthly gifts, long-term support, major gifts, and planned giving. The India Street Society honors not only the size of a gift, but the intention and consistency behind it, with updates, small gatherings, and shared moments of reflection and celebration.

Advocates for Justice. Monthly donors whose steady, ongoing gifts keep ILAP ready for whatever comes next.

Ambassadors for Justice. Annual donors who give $300 or more, or anyone who has given for three or more years, regardless of gift amount.

Pillars of Justice. Annual donors who give $1,000 or more, or those who have given for ten or more years, regardless of gift amount.

Legacy of Justice. Supporters who have included ILAP in their will, trust, or estate plans.

2025 Supporters

We are grateful to every one of you, including those listed, those who’ve chosen to remain anonymous, and those who have supported us year in and year out.

If anyone has been inadvertently omitted from this list, please know it was not intentional. Please reach out and let us know so we can correct the error.

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