Who We Are

Now in our 13th year of service, New England Justice for Our Neighbors provides free, expert legal aid to Massachusetts immigrants seeking humanitarian-based visas. Our clients include unaccompanied minors, asylum applicants, and victims of violence.

Our work helps families stay together, victims of violence escape further harm, asylum seekers find a safe haven, and unaccompanied minors begin a new, more promising future. The effects of legal status ripple out from our clients themselves to the rest of their households and eventually to additional generations.

We are proud to be an affiliate of the Immigration Law & Justice Network.

How We Help

We currently run two programs.  Our Advice & Advocacy program serves immigrants across Western, Central, and Northeast Massachusetts.  Our Pathway to Hope program serves unaccompanied minors in six counties across Eastern Massachusetts.

Advice & Advocacy offers remote and in-person appointments at four monthly legal clinics.  During their legal consultations, attorneys provide trustworthy advice, giving clients invaluable knowledge about their legal options and allowing them to avoid predatory lawyers who take their cases (and their money) even if they are without merit.

Advice & Advocacy also accepts approximately 25% of new clients each year for legal representation in their immigration cases.  The process for humanitarian-based visas is extremely complex and can take years to complete.  We currently represent over 150 clients in their ongoing immigration cases at no cost to them.

Pathway to Hope offers full legal representation for all children accepted into the program.  Attorneys meet with all clients individually rather than in legal clinics.

Our Impact

Over the past 12 years, we have served hundreds of clients, helping them access safety, security, self-sufficiency, and justice. Our clients have faced unspeakable hardship and exhibited extraordinary bravery and resourcefulness to reach our doors, and we are proud to be able to help them take this momentous next step in their journey.

We serve asylum seekers, unaccompanied minors, and victims of violence – such as gang violence, human trafficking, and domestic violence. In 2024, approximately 30% of our clients were asylum seekers, and approximately 40% were unaccompanied minors. We served 194 new clients – 110 consultation clients, 20 new limited-service clients, and 27 new full-representation clients. We closed 39 full-representation cases, opened 64 full-representation cases, and continued work on 153 open cases.  We are proud to report an 87% success rate on our cases in 2024.

Our 2024 clients came to us predominantly from the Americas (Central America: 36%; the Caribbean: 27%; South America: 22%). 23% of these clients are originally from Guatemala, 13% from Haiti, and 11% from the Dominican Republic. In total, our 2024 new clients represented 48 countries. These clients live in 54 cities and towns across Massachusetts, with Springfield, Lynn, Worcester, Lawrence, and Boston making up about 60% of the total.

Immigrants continue to move to Massachusetts, and the new administration is making it more difficult to obtain legal status while also removing status from groups that already have it.  Demand for immigrant services, including immigrant legal services, has only increased, and we are here to help as many people and families as possible.

Click here to read our clients’ stories

How to Get Help

Both our Advice & Advocacy program and our Pathway to Hope program can be reached at New England Justice for Our Neighbor’s main phone number:

855-635-8781
(855-NE-JUST-1)

In addition, our Advice & Advocacy legal clinics can be reached directly at the numbers listed below.  Please contact the clinic corresponding to your town/city of residence.  Advice & Advocacy clinics are by appointment only.  Please note that our phones are not answered live. Leave a message or send a text in the language of your choice, and intake personnel will get back to you.

Central Massachusetts Clinic: 978-400-2126
Northeastern Massachusetts Clinic: 617-794-7024
Western Massachusetts Clinic: 413-386-9951

We serve all immigrants regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, ideology, gender identity, or sexual orientation.

Partner With Us

Like any nonprofit organization, we only succeed because of the partnership of supporters, volunteers, and other organizations.

Please consider making a donation. We’re happy to receive one-time donations or to welcome you as an Access Ally monthly donor. To discuss a contribution from a DAF or including New England JFON in your will, please click here.

To host a fundraiser on behalf of New England Justice for Our Neighbors, contact us here.

We are always seeking volunteers with a wide range of skills, and experience is not necessarily required. Click here to be taken to our volunteer interest form.

Newsletter and Reports

To stay connected with New England Justice for Our Neighbors, subscribe to our newsletter. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

You can review our newsletters here and Impact Reports here.

Our Clients' Stories

Andrés' Story

Before coming to the United States, “Andrés” lived in Guatemala in a one-room house with his parents, three siblings, and six other family members. The 12-person household made only $40/month, often lacked food to eat, and could not afford medical care. Andrés was forced to leave school in sixth grade in order to work in the fields and help support his family. When he turned 16, he made the perilous journey north to join his older brother in hopes of improving his living conditions.

Although he did gain access to adequate food, shelter, and an education following his arrival in the U.S., his legal situation remained precarious. In 2022, Andrés attended New England Justice for Our Neighbors’ Western Massachusetts legal clinic. His New England JFON lawyer at Central West Justice Center filed for a green card, and Andrés received it a few months later.

Andrés reports, “I am very grateful to [New England JFON and Central West Justice Center] for changing my life. I feel safer and have more opportunities.” He emphasizes that, since he could not previously work legally in the U.S., he would have had no path to legal representation without our free services. Now that he has completed high school and received legal status, Andrés has been able to obtain a driver’s license and a stable job at a warehouse.

Thanks to his bravery and initiative and our aid, Andrés has been able to improve his life immeasurably and is now looking forward to a much brighter future. Our volunteers, staff, supporters, and legal partners work together to provide safety, stability, hope, and justice to unaccompanied minors like Andrés and to all of our clients.

Juan's Story

Last year, “Juan,” an indigenous Guatemalan teenager living in Great Barrington, attended one of New England JFON’s virtual legal clinics.
In Guatemala, Juan, his parents, and his six siblings lived in a very small house and regularly struggled to find enough food to eat. In 2019, at the age of 17, Juan made the perilous journey north to the United States in hopes of improving his family’s living conditions.

His plans were derailed when he was held in custody for two years because the government did not find anyone considered suitable to care for him.

When he was finally old enough to be released, he found an apartment and roommates in Great Barrington and enrolled in school; his English tutor suggested that he contact New England JFON for legal aid.

Juan’s New England JFON lawyer was able to confirm that Juan was eligible for legal status as an unaccompanied minor, and she filed his petition with the US Immigration Service. Now Juan is eagerly waiting for the petition to be approved. Once that happens, he will be able to avoid deportation, work legally in the US, finish school, and eventually obtain a green card.

Thanks to our generous donors, all of Juan’s legal services were provided free of charge. Our volunteers, contributors, and legal partners work together to create bright new futures for unaccompanied minors like Juan.

Yosselin's Story

Yosselin is a young woman from Guatemala who was abandoned by her father as an infant. Yosselin’s uncle was registered as her father on her birth certificate because it was improper for a child to not have a father in her culture. Yosselin never knew her real father and grew up living in extreme poverty with a mother who barely made enough to survive. As she got older, gang members started threatening Yosselin so that she would become “their woman.” Yosselin refused, both because of her Christian values and because she knew that young women who become romantic partners of gang members are often forced to commit crimes and are often raped and murdered. She fled to the United States to escape this violence and extreme poverty and to pursue her dream of continuing her studies.

With the help of New England Justice for Our Neighbors and the Northeast Justice Center, Yosselin was able to work with the Probate and Family Court and untangle her complex family history. The

official finding that she had been abandoned by her true father made her eligible for a Special Immigrant Juvenile Visa. Now Yosselin has obtained Special Immigrant Juvenile status and is awaiting the availability of the corresponding visa that will allow her to become a permanent resident of the United States and obtain the security and educational opportunities she deserves.

Adriana's Story

“Adriana” and her 7-year-old daughter “Rosa” came to the U.S. from a region in Guatemala beset by rampant crime, crippling poverty, and food insecurity. Despite Rosa’s youth and the many dangers on the way, Adriana made the brave decision to make the arduous journey. Shortly after her arrival, Adriana fainted at work and was rushed to the hospital. After a long series of tests and painful diagnostic procedures, she was diagnosed with terminal renal disease, meaning that both of her kidneys had failed.

At the same time, Adriana and Rosa were facing deportation. If returned to Guatemala, Adriana would not be able to continue receiving the medical treatment she needed to stay alive and support her daughter.

After several months of advocacy by Adriana’s NEJFON attorney at the Northeast Justice Center, the Department of Homeland Security agreed to dismiss the case against Adriana and young Rosa in light of Adriana’s unique and terrifying circumstances. Now they can remain in the United States without the imminent threat of deportation. “Your office, your work, and you as a person have been the best I could hope to find to fight my case,” Adriana told her attorney.

Thanks to Adriana’s courage and initiative, and the expert legal services provided by New England JFON and its legal partner, Adriana can now focus on her health and Rosa’s well-being instead of the threat of deportation. In situations like Adriana’s, legal services can truly be life-altering – and even life-saving.”

Our Partners

We are grateful for the generous support of our institutional partners and grantors.

Immigration Law and Justice Network (formerly National Justice for Our Neighbors) George & Louise J. Hauser Charitable Trust

George Lucas Charitable Fund of Calvary Church

New Commonwealth Racial Equity and Social Justice Fund New England Annual Conference of the UMC

United Methodist Foundation of New England

Contact Us

To contact New England Justice for Our Neighbors, please email us at info@newenglandjfon.org or fill out the contact form below.

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At this time, New England JFON only sends text messages to current clients. If you are not a client, you will never receive a text message from us.

If you are a client and would like to opt-in to receiving SMS from NEJFON, you may do so here.

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Message frequency varies and may include appointment reminders and other communications about your legal case. Message and data rates may apply. Opt-out at any time by replying “STOP”. For assistance, send “HELP”.

We do not sell, rent or share your personal data for marketing/promotional/advertising purposes. We may share your personal information with trusted third-party service providers to help deliver our services. These third parties are required to protect your data and may only use it as instructed by us. For more details, please see our Privacy policy: https://newenglandjfon.org/privacy-policy.

New England JFON uses the following phone numbers for texting purposes: 855-635-8781, 781-776-3079, 508-657-3407, 413-386-9951, 413-676-2009, 781-557-5008, 617-866-2552, 978-400-2126, and 617-794-7024.

Our Mailing Address

New England Justice for Our Neighbors
421 Common Street
Belmont, Massachusetts 02478

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New England Justice for Our Neighbors is a 501(c)(3) organization, EIN 47-2379251.