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by Bart Skorupa, Development Director
At Mobile Pathways, we believe that the collection and distribution of critical information pertaining to marginalized immigrants is a right, not a privilege. We reach our audience via technology working with immigration nonprofit advocates who collect and send case-relevant information to their immigration clients.
In order to collect real time data pertaining to immigration justice, we look at where our immigrant advocates are spending and losing most of their time. We also look at where they can automate their day-to-day tasks to help move the needle on immigration justice.
We expand the footprint of immigration justice through partnerships like the one we have with CLSEPA, a nonprofit offering legal services that improve the lives of low-income families. According to Mariam Kelly, Managing Attorney, Immigration Program at CLSEPA, their pro bono immigration legal services are in high demand but with just eight immigration attorneys on staff, frequent turn over with pro bono attorneys, and long case wait times, they have to limit their pro bono services.
In the past, CLSEPA coordinated its pro bono immigration cases by calling the respective toll free number for each client to verify if their court information was still the same. CLSEPA would then track those cases via a spreadsheet and would manually update the information at the beginning of each month. With one out of four court cases being rescheduled, they had to become schedule masters just to manage all the updated hearing information.
Through technology provided via Mobile Pathways’ MyCamino platform, CLSEPA is now able to manage pro bono cases in a more timely and efficient manner. They now receive auto updates and email notifications through an auto-scrape of the Automatic Case Information System (ACIS), and can then forward that information to the pro bono attorney tasked with the case. This new system provides less chances of missing case deadlines and it reduces time spent on administration.
Mobile Pathways now has about 144 immigration nonprofit partners and at this time is tracking close to 17,000 cases. We are extracting real-time accurate data that greatly changes the type of advocacy efforts we can undertake. We are also able to find very specific pain points where the justice system is failing, allowing us to better advise people on their immigration journey.
