Awards & Recognition given to PAIR
PAIR in the News

• New Yorker Magazine’s foreign-affairs columnist George Packer, who was a featured speaker at the PAIR Gala on June 9, 2010, mentions PAIR’s excellent work in his June 11 blog at http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/

• On June 6, 2010, PAIR Pro Bono Detention Manager Antonio P. Castro Aranda was awarded a honorable recognition by Sheriff Thomas M. Hodgson, of the Bristol County House of Correction, for services provided to immigration detainees.

• Kathy Henry, PAIR Board member and the Pro Bono Partner at Choate, Hall & Stewart LLP, wrote a powerful piece in the Boston Bar Journal, Summer 2010, on working with PAIR asylum clients.

• PAIR Executive Director, Sarah Ignatius, was quoted in a Boston Globe article about President Obama's aunt who has won a rare ruling in Boston's immigration court.
  
  
• PAIR Pro Bono Detention Manager, Antonio Castro Aranda, recognized by the National Immigrant Bond Fund's Dignity & Due Process Blog.
  
  
• PAIR Asylum Staff Attorney Anita Sharma was selected to serve as the 2010-2012 co-chair of the Boston Bar Association’s newly created Immigration Law Section.
  
  
• PAIR was one of three organizations featured in the Massachusetts Bar Foundation’s video celebrating the Foundation’s 45th anniversary in January 2010, available for viewing at www.massbarfoundation.org.
  
  
• PAIR was honored with the 2009 Dr. Joseph H. Brenner Award from Community Legal Services and Counseling Center (CLSACC) during CLSACC's Annual Volunteer Appreciation Party on April 6, 2009.

• PAIR Asylum Attorney Anita Sharma was honored as one of the 100 Unsung Heroines of 2009 by the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women (MCSW) .

• PAIR Executive Director Sarah Ignatius and Program Coordinator Antonio Castro Aranda were recognized by the American Immigration Lawyers Association - New England Chapter for their dedication and efforts to develop and sustain the AILA/PAIR Pro Bono Program.

• PAIR Executive Director Sarah Ignatius and PAIR Board member Robert Hildreth received the Keeper of the American Dream Award by the National Immigration Forum on behalf of the National Immigrant Bond Fund in 2008.

• PAIR Asylum Attorney Anita Sharma was selected by the Boston Bar Association as a member of its Public Interest Leadership Program (PILP) 2008-2009 class. A profile of Anita and the other PILP participants are available online.

• PAIR received the Daniel Levy Award from the National Immigration Project (NIP) in November 2007 for its part in responding immediately to the March 6, 2007 workplace raid in New Bedford, during which Immigration arrested over 360 people.

• PAIR has been selected for Pickering Fellowship of WilmerHale LLP, allowing a WilmerHale associate to spend six months as a full-time staff attorney, either at PAIR or at only one other non-profit.

• PAIR received a Special Recognition from the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Standing Committee on Pro Bono Legal Services, on June 4, 2007, for recruiting and training over 70 attorneys from private law firms for pro bono representation of victims of the March 2007 Immigration raid in New Bedford.

• PAIR client and Board member Edith Fobid spoke at the Boston Bar Foundation John and Abigail Adams Ball in November 2006 about being imprisoned and tortured in Cameroon due to her support for minority rights of English-speakers there.

• PAIR Asylum Attorney Anita Sharma received the John G. Brooks Public Service Award in October 2006 from the Boston Bar Association for her outstanding representation and mentoring, and tireless efforts on behalf of PAIR’s asylum clients.

• PAIR was awarded the Obunto Award in June 2006 by the Boston Center for Refugee Health and Human Rights for its “dedicated service to survivors of torture and asylum-seekers, for providing hope to countless individuals and their families, [and] for caring for each individual one at a time."

• PAIR was selected for the 2006 Catalogue for Philanthropy’s 10th anniversary edition for “[standing] squarely in the grand tradition of American philanthropy’s commitment to political freedom”.

• American Immigration Lawyers Association - New England Chapter selected PAIR Asylum Attorney Anita Sharma as Co-Chair of the Liaison Committee on Asylum and former PAIR Detention Attorney Laura Murray Tjan as Co-Chair of the Liaison Committee on Detention in 2006 and 2007.

 

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PAIR in the News:

• Daughter of PAIR client wins Violet Richardson Award, Calgary Herald (March 8, 2010)
• Release of citizen held in immigration detention highlights difficulties for others, Harvard Law Record (November 19, 2009)
• Nearly a year in jail, stowaway freed, Boston Globe (June 30, 2009)
• Ordered deported, but kept in jail, Boston Globe (June 2, 2009)
• Immigration legal system does not protect rights, Associated Press (April 13, 2009)
• BBA Public Interest Leaders Lead the Way, Boston Bar Association Newsletter (March 26, 2009)
• A search for asylum and peace of mind, Boston Globe (March 9, 2009)
• Letter to the Editor - Immigration Raids, New York Times (February 10, 2009)
• Jailed immigrants buoy budgets, Boston Globe (February 9, 2009)
• She finally finds a safe haven, Providence Journal (February 3, 2009)
• The Other Bailout Plan, Boston Magazine (October 29, 2008)
• Bond help heartens immigrants, Washington Post (September 7, 2008)
• Some arrested in raids to seek asylum in U.S., Providence Journal (August 11, 2008)
• Fund would aid those seized in workplace raids, NPR (August 11, 2008)
• Crean fondo para fianzas de inmigrantes en EU, Associated Press/ Excelsior Online (August 11, 2008)
• Bond fund drive begins, Baltimore Sun (August 11, 2008)
• Illegal workers get help from fund, Houston Chronicle (August 7, 2008)
• Stuck in Syria, With No Way Home, Washington Post (June 1, 2008)
• Boston Financier Steps In to Bail Out Illegal Immigrants, Wall Street Journal (March 19, 2008)
• Cape immigrants fearful of government raids, Cape Cod Times (February 6, 2008)
• Their Lives in Limbo, They Fight to Stay, Boston Globe (June 12, 2007)
• As Deportation Pace Rises, Illegal Immigrants Dig In, New York Times (May 1, 2007)
• New Bedford Immigration Raid Separates Families But Unites Legal Community Response, Massachusetts Bar Lawyers Journal (May 2007)
• Lawyers Bone Up on Immigration Law for Pro Bono Work, National Law Journal (March 26, 2007)
• Cheers: The Ultimate Holiday Party, Boston Globe Magazine (November 19, 2006)

 

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