A legal aid service for Lexington immigrants has had to scale back operations as they contend with federal funding freezes.
Maxwell Street Legal Clinic in Lexington provides low-income immigrants with legal assistance, including help with citizenship.
Much of the service’s funding comes from the federal Victims of Crime Act, which awards grants to help victims of human trafficking and other abuse. The clinic has cut half its staff because of cuts to VOCA.
Abigail Rundell is the clinic’s deputy program director. She says they’re working to find other funding sources in the meantime.
“We are only really guaranteed to be operating through September. We're looking hopeful right now with our fundraising. We're trying very hard to, I guess, diversify our funding base and get away from being reliant on federal grants,” Rundell said.
Rundell says around 40% of Maxwell Street cases could be worked on for free because of VOCA. Now they're currently only able to take short-term cases that can be completed in one meeting.
She says those funds being inaccessible impacts their ability to take on any crime victim cases.
“They can take years and years to be processed. And if we don't know if we're going to be operating past September, how can we take on a client and say, ‘Okay, you're not going to get an approval until 2035’?” Rundell said.
She says they’re looking for individual donations in the meantime.
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