A Message From Our Executive Director
As we celebrate ILAP’s 30-year anniversary and look towards the future, this is an opportunity to reflect on how ILAP became the organization it is today and how it can grow into the organization it needs to be for the future we envision. That future is a world where everyone can thrive without barriers related to immigration status, race, or other identities.
ILAP started in 1993 when Founding Executive Director Beth Stickney brought her decades of immigration law expertise to Maine, with the support of a small group of pro bono attorneys and supporters who believed in ILAP’s mission. Today, ILAP is a statewide immigration legal aid organization drawing national attention, with 30 staff and over 250 volunteers, offices in Portland and Lewiston, and a traveling Rural Maine Project. We help 3,000 clients each year and are at the forefront of several national immigration policy initiatives.
“It’s the community and volunteer support, together with our staff and board, who have made ILAP what it is today: an organization recognized locally and nationally for its immigration law expertise, innovation, and powerful advocacy strategies.”
Over the years, we have expanded and adapted to meet emerging needs and changing immigration laws and policies. We have grown our capacity and piloted new projects to help more of the thousands of new immigrants coming to Maine, many of them asylum seekers and unaccompanied immigrant youth. We have developed new collaborations with the growing number of organizations and immigrant-led groups who are working together to change our flawed immigration system.
It’s the community and volunteer support, together with our staff and board, who have made ILAP what it is today: an organization recognized locally and nationally for its immigration law expertise, innovation, and powerful advocacy strategies.
We thank you for being part of that community and for being with us on this journey. As we look forward to the future, we will continue to help immigrants navigate the system we have, while we also work alongside our partners, especially immigrant-led groups, to help create an immigration system that reflects our values of justice and equity.
Thank you for your support and solidarity.
SUE ROCHE
Executive Director