The city plans to nearly double funding for legal defense of local residents facing deportation — but immigrant advocates are calling for a much bigger boost.
Mayor Cherelle Parker has proposed increasing Philadelphia’s annual contribution to the Pennsylvania Immigrant Family Unity Project, or PAIFUP, from $500,000 to $950,000 a year.
But as the administration and City Council negotiate details of the 2026 budget that will go into effect in July, some councilmembers and immigrant rights groups are asking for a more substantial bump, to at least $1.8 million a year.
“Due process shouldn’t depend on your income or immigration status,” said Jeff Serra, legislative director for Councilmember Rue Landau, at a press conference held last week by advocates for the funding increase. “Everyone deserves representation, and when I say everyone, that includes everyone, regardless of their citizenship status.”
“Now is not the time to turn our backs on immigrant children and their families,” said Deborah Wei, founder of Asian Americans United. “Philadelphia must be better and put the needs of its children front and center.”
Landau described the city funding as “a lifeline for immigrant communities facing detention and deportation,” but said she was concerned that some of those dollars could end up going to programs other than legal counsel.
“We need to ensure the intent and impact of PAIFUP funding are preserved during this turbulent time for our immigrant residents,” she told Billy Penn. “Especially as additional resources are being proposed for other initiatives, we must keep our focus on protecting due process rights and keeping families together.”
The advocates are also asking for $1.9 million for three new newcomer programs that would help recently arrived students navigate their schools and provide immigrant families access to language resources and other assistance.
“The world has changed a lot”
The aid, advocates say, is urgently needed as President Donald Trump pushes U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to deport more people, and virtually every week brings news of another set of arrests in the region.
“The world has changed a lot in the last three months, and there is terror in the immigrant community,” Councilmember Jamie Gauthier told Managing Director Adam Thiel at a hearing earlier this month. “Do you think that what we are proposing responds to that change in the world?”
She also asked him more broadly what the administration is “doing to build trust in these communities” that they can safely reach out to city agencies for help.
Thiel did not directly respond to Gauthier’s questions about the higher funding request, saying his office’s job is to execute city policies.
“What we’re proposing is to continue the suite of services that we’ve provided, as a city, with city funding,” he said, referring to the legal aid and the work of the city’s Office of Immigration Affairs (OIA). “As far as how folks interact with the federal government and what the federal government does, frankly that is not something that is within our ability to control.”
Gauthier said that, as PAIFUP expands, the administration should consider moving the program into the Defenders Association of Philadelphia. That nonprofit serves as the city’s public defender, providing representation to defendants in criminal cases who can’t afford to hire a lawyer. It helps criminal defendants manage potential immigration issues, but does not currently handle deportation defense cases.
Thiel said the future structure of PAIFUP is “under negotiation” and would be decided once OIA has a new director. The city is in the process of interviewing candidates for the position, he said.
The boost for PAIFUP is one of many requests in different areas that the Parker administration is juggling as it seeks to finalize the city’s proposed $6.7 billion budget for the coming fiscal year.
The prospects for funding beyond the proposed $950,000 are unclear. Landau didn’t address a question about whether the administration has shown interest in making a larger contribution, and the mayor’s press office didn’t respond to a request for comment.
A network of legal aid programs
The city and the Vera Institute founded PAIFUP in 2019, with each initially putting in $100,000. Philadelphia steadily raised its contribution over the years and other donors have also assisted, including the Samuel S. Fels Fund, which contributed $100,000 annually for three years.
“The right to a fair trial is a fundamental principle of the American justice system, and I am proud that Philadelphia is stepping up in this moment to ensure that our immigrant neighbors will have access to legal representation in federal immigration court,” then-councilmember Helen Gym said in 2020.
Recently the money has been paying for all or part of the salaries of several attorneys at two nonprofit legal organizations in Philadelphia, the Nationalities Service Center (NSC) and HIAS Pennsylvania, as well as a project coordinator at the Pennsylvania Immigration Resource Coalition in York.
The attorneys have defended immigrants being held at Moshannon Valley Processing Center, Pike County Correctional Facility, and Clinton County Correctional Facility who are in deportation proceedings.
The city of Pittsburgh and other donors separately contribute funding to PAIFUP to defend immigrants from the Pittsburgh area.
The New York-based Vera Institute says it has helped set up 55 similar programs across the country with the goal of establishing what it calls “universal representation,” or a public defender system for people in immigration court. Unlike in criminal cases, people facing deportation have no right to publicly funded lawyers.
PAIFUP defends people like “Thomas,” a Jamaica-born lawful permanent resident who was on the verge of being deported in 2021 until a lawyer filed an emergency stay of removal, according to an account from NSC. A PAIFUP attorney found medical experts who attested to mental health conditions that made Thomas eligible for asylum, and a judge agreed to release him.
Nationally, 65% of people facing deportation in immigration court lack legal counsel, according to the Vera Institute, and are left to defend themselves against government attorneys in sometimes complicated legal cases.
PAIFUP officials cite studies showing that those with access to representation are 3.5 times more likely to be released from detention, and 10 times more likely to win the right to remain in the U.S., compared to people without lawyers.
Unease over sanctuary city status
The push for more city support comes as immigrant aid organizations face both increasing demand and cuts in funding.
Most of Nationalities Service Center’s $13.4 million budget is dedicated to programs that help legally admitted refugees resettle in the U.S. But in January the Trump administration stopped paying resettlement agencies, and NSC expects its budget to be roughly halved by May, the Inquirer reported. Its total staff is reportedly down to 81, from 125 last year.
The Justice Department also cut off funding to legal education programs that paid nonprofit organizations in other cities to help immigrants navigate the legal system.
The comments from Gauthier, Landau and others may reflect ongoing discontent among immigration rights supporters over Mayor Parker’s muted reaction to calls for more pushback against the Trump administration’s efforts to detain and deport more people.
When asked in November about the city’s sanctuary protections, which limit cooperation with ICE, Parker said, “I don’t know what will happen in the future” and that her administration is “prepared to address issues that will come before us.”
“Given what many have seen… as a lack of publicly stated support for immigrant communities at this time, do you think that immigrants should feel safe reaching out to the city of Philadelphia?” Gauthier asked Thiel at the April 9 hearing.
“As far as the trust and the engagement for us right now as a city, all the supports that were in place continue to exist. We are continuing to invest … in the FY 26 proposed budget, invest in those services,” he answered. “We’re excited to get this new director on board and excited to continue the community engagement work that is underway while we continue to track a very dynamic situation at the federal level.”
