An immigration consultation changed her life. Now $15K will help hundreds more
Mizari Suárez knows exactly what a new $15,000 grant could mean for hundreds of Lexington households — because a single, low-cost immigration consultation once transformed her own life.
So when Neighbors Immigration Clinic, of which Suárez has served as the executive director for the past three years, was awarded Blue Grass Community Foundation’s LexGive365 Community Champions Grant on May 20, she immediately got to work.
Neighbors is an immigrant-led nonprofit in Kentucky that provides low-cost legal help and representation for immigrants statewide. The Community Champions Grant is an award designed to support Fayette County-based nonprofits with annual operating budgets under $500,000.
Within a week of receiving the grant, Suárez and her three-person team were using the funds to waive consultation fees for immigrants in Fayette County.
Founded in 2019, the clinic services 400 to 500 families annually, including about 300 in Fayette County. With initial consultations priced at $50, Suárez said the $15,000 gift from LexGive365 could cover these first-time fees for every Neighbors client living in Fayette County for an entire year.
But in the first month of the clinic offering to waive fees, many clients have insisted on paying the $50 anyway, asking Neighbors to use it to cover the next person’s consultation. Suárez said this will ensure the grant goes towards families who need it the most.
“$50 might not be a lot for you or me, but $50 is a lot for families that are trying to make it work,” Suárez said. “Being able to use this money to provide access to legal consults allows families to say, ‘Okay, thanks to BGCF and LexGive365, I don’t have to make a tough decision if I’m going to buy diapers or buy food or pay my light bill.’”
While initial consults are only the beginning of most immigrants’ legal journey, Suárez said not to underestimate their impact.
In the hour-long sessions, Neighbors’ Legal Director Katie Taylor screens clients for different pathways to citizenship and visas, asking detailed questions that can reveal options they didn’t know existed.
Suárez knows the ripple effect that can follow firsthand.
She grew up in Lexington as the oldest of four siblings in a single-parent home of undocumented Mexican immigrants — a life marked by poverty, she said.
When Suárez was in high school, her mother learned through an affordable legal consultation that she was eligible for a U-visa, which lets non-citizen crime victims work in the United States for up to four years. Her mother had just escaped a domestic violence situation, and was eligible for the work visa, Suárez said.
Her mother quit her factory job the day she received her work permit, leaving behind a position where her earnings, benefits and hours were constrained by her legal status, according to Suárez.
“It really put my family out of poverty, and they gave my mom the tools to start her own business. She felt confident,” Suárez said. “For the first time, my mom was able to have health insurance and go get her checkups that she needed to.”
That initial legal consultation eventually led to Suárez’s entire family gaining legal status in the United States.
“Because of that, I was able to go to college, and because of that, I was able to have a job where I’m contributing back to my city, to my home,” Suárez said. “I think the reason why Neighbors’ work has been able to grow and flourish has been really because of my mom.”
Suárez’s mother has been running her food truck business for the past 11 years. She also works to connect friends in need with Neighbors Immigration Clinic’s services.
While she appreciates the referrals, Suárez said she feels like Neighbors can barely keep up with the demand.
“I need, like, 10 attorneys to be able to tackle what we’re seeing right now,” Suárez said. “We only have one attorney on staff who does all cases.”
Data from the Kentucky Office for Refugees shows that the state ranks fourth nationally in total refugee arrivals, cementing the Bluegrass as a major hub for resettlement. In 2024, migration from other countries accounted for 80% of Kentucky’s population growth, the Kentucky Lantern reported.
But immigrants in the U.S. South have the lowest legal representation rate in the country — only about 39.8% have an attorney in non-detained immigration cases, compared with 58.3% on the West Coast, according to the American Immigration Council.
Neighbors’ overload includes an uptick in ICE detainment cases, Suárez said, noting how undocumented people in immigration proceedings do not get a public defender or state-appointed attorney.
“In immigration, you have to find your own attorney, and a lot of times people who are in detention cannot afford it, and their families go into debt thousands and thousands of dollars,” Suárez said.
In a state with scarce immigration attorneys and rising detentions, Neighbors’ low-cost, sometimes free, services, thanks to the money from LexGive365’s grant, provide what Suárez’s family once needed: a path forward.
“Not only do we make people’s lives better, we’re changing the trajectory of that family, of the generations that are to come, but also we’re changing communities, and we’re changing our cities,” Suárez said.
This is exactly why Courtney Bush, communications manager for the Blue Grass Community Foundation, said Neighbors was selected for the grant.
“In a time when you know society is pretty sticky, especially when it comes to our relationship with immigrants … just realizing that these are women who are real people who are wanting to really make not just Lexington, but Kentucky as a whole, more inclusive and more open to our friends and neighbors. I think that really spoke to our membership,” Bush said.
