MIRA is the largest coalition in New England promoting the rights and integration of immigrants and refugees. With offices in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, we advance this mission through education and training, leadership development, institutional organizing, strategic communications, policy analysis and advocacy.

MIRA is a dynamic and multi‐ethnic coalition with more than 130 organizational members, including grassroots community organizations; refugee resettlement agencies; providers of social, legal and health services, faith-based organizations and civil and human rights advocates. We organize and empower our members and allies, and together we mobilize immigrant communities to advocate for themselves, and amplify and support their voices. MIRA is a respected leader on immigrant issues at the state and national levels, and an authoritative source of information and policy analysis for policymakers, advocates, immigrant communities and the media.

MIRA’s two biggest legislative priorities this year are the Safe Communities Act (SCA) and the Work and Family Mobility Act. SCA seeks to protect due process for all Massachusetts residents, regardless of their immigration status, and ensure that people feel safe calling law enforcement without fear of deportation or arrest due to their status. It also heavily limits the ability for local police, court officials, and jail officials to contact ICE that someone is being released, except when that person has finished serving a criminal sentence. More information on this important bill can be found here: http://miracoalition.org/images/Documents/SCA-factsheet-March2019.pdf

The Work and Family Mobility Act seeks to make available state driver’s licenses for all qualified Massachusetts residents, regardless of their immigration status. People need to be able to go to work, drop their children off at school, go shopping, etc. like everyone else without fear of being pulled over and likely detained due to their immigration status. This bill ensures that all drivers are trained, licensed and insured, and removes unlicensed driving as a key entry point to the deportation pipeline. Twelve REAL ID-compliant states, including Connecticut and Vermont, already issue licenses to all qualified residents.

The work involved in getting these two bills passed is multipronged. We must work with our members to educate, mobilize, and train active and knowledgeable advocates. On the political level, we must work with allies in the legislature to bring in moderate voices who are indifferent or apathetic on the bill, and create a veto-proof majority. On the communications level, we must produce proper messaging and content for both the legislative and mobilization side, but additionally, create media content such as op-eds and factsheets on the issues while they progress.