Press Release: 4/22/2026
Immigrant, Refugee Coalition Honored with AIM Latimer Award
Posted on April 21, 2026
A regional organization promoting the rights of immigrants and refugees is the winner of the 2026 Associated Industries of Massachusetts Lewis Latimer Award honoring commitment to economic inclusion.
The Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition (MIRA) is the most influential immigrant-rights organization in New England. With offices in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, MIRA provides education and training, leadership development, institutional organizing, strategic communications, policy analysis, and advocacy.
“AIM is pleased to honor MIRA for its unparalleled dedication to helping our newest arrivals become our neighbors, friends and co-workers,” said Brooke Thomson, President and CEO of AIM.
“We also honor MIRA for its courage in responding to the significant changes in federal immigration policy during the past year.”
The AIM Latimer Award is presented annually to a Massachusetts innovator, organization or business leader who has broken barriers to innovate and create economic opportunity. The award honors Lewis Latimer, a Chelsea-born Black inventor who in 1882 patented a method for the production of carbon filaments critical to the development of the electric light bulb.
The child of former slaves, Mr. Latimer also drafted the drawings that allowed Alexander Graham Bell to receive a patent for the telephone.
The award will be presented at the AIM Annual Meeting on May 7 in Boston.
Founded in 1987, MIRA offers everything from legal services and an immigration helpline to assistance with citizenship applications and educational programs.
Those services are in high demand in the current environment.
In just a three-month period, MIRA’s Immigration Helpline saw an 83% increase in calls from residents seeking guidance — whether navigating their legal options, locating loved ones after a detention, or avoiding fraud. The organization reached more than 5,000 Boston residents through live Know Your Rights trainings during eight months in 2025 — and thousands more through recorded sessions.
One in six Massachusetts residents, and one in five workers, is foreign-born. In Boston alone, approximately 30,000 residents are eligible to become U.S. citizens, and 1 in 10 residents is already a naturalized citizen.
“People are hungry for accurate, trusted information, and that hunger is a measure of how much is at stake,” said MIRA Executive Director Elizabeth Sweet.
The MIRA collation includes more than 100 member organizations spread throughout Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire. Members run the gamut from Lawyers for Civil Rights to the Sisters of St. Joseph.
MIRA is also a respected leader on immigrant issues at the state and national levels, and the leading source of information and policy analysis for policymakers, advocates, immigrant communities, business partners, and the media.
The scope of the organization’s public-policy activity was on full display on March 18 when 1,200 people attended MIRA’s 30th annual Immigrants’ Day at the State House. The gathering brought together some of the Commonwealth’s most prominent elected officials as Governor Maura Healey and Senate President Karen Spilka addressed the crowd alongside House Leader Carlos González, State Senator Cindy Friedman, and State Representative Judith García.
The payoff came two weeks later when the state House of Representatives passed the Protect Act, legislation designed to restrict state and local law enforcement from cooperating with federal civil immigration enforcement (ICE). It sets statewide standards to protect immigrant communities by banning local, warrantless ICE arrests in courthouses, limiting information sharing, and preventing police from inquiring about immigration status.
MIRA defines itself as committed to being immigrant and refugee centered, inclusive, collaborative, and focused on capacity building.