Our History

Mabel Center founders developed the Family Detention Project within a legal services organization in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Through the two-year project, they helped 130 mothers, fathers, and children fleeing persecution in Central America file their asylum cases with the Boston Immigration Court. With the urgent need for free and experienced representation expanding — while its accessibility diminishes under increasingly onerous asylum laws and procedures — Mabel Center’s founding attorneys decided to use their experience and specialized knowledge to create an organization dedicated to the skillful and efficient representation of complex and urgent asylum cases and assisting pro se asylum seekers. Mabel Center received its 501(c)(3) status in June of 2020. 

In our first year as a 501c3 non-profit organization, the founding attorneys helped 130 mothers, fathers, and children fleeing persecution in Central America file their asylum applications with the Boston Immigration Court. Mabel Center is the only legal organization in the Boston area providing pro se services for emergency asylum filings. Other local organizations, unable to meet this critical need, rely on us to help these asylum-seekers, regularly referring these clients to us.   

Mabel Center is currently assisting 700 clients (540 served in FY23). Mabel Center attorneys’ legal strategy and approach has led to remarkable success in winning asylum for our clients. The attorneys have secured asylum for over 50 people in the last four years — including Mabel, who presented her asylum case at the border tent courts, where grant rates are estimated at 0.1%.  

Mabel Center fights for women and children who have escaped violent persecution unimaginable to many. Mabel Center’s ultimate impact is achieved through helping clients fight for justice. Our advocacy gives women, who have been dehumanized, a renewed faith in justice, a sense that their lives matter, and the ability to work and live without fear of being separated from their families or returned to the danger they fled.