Nonprofits and community groups serving Brazilian residents in Somerville face growing challenges, with at least one group losing hundreds of thousands of dollars last month that was promised by the government.
The Massachusetts Alliance of Portuguese Speakers lost $214,000 starting Sept. 30 in an annual federal grant supporting more than 200 people in its Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault program.
“We were expecting and prepared to deal with federal funding cuts as the new administration took office,” chief executive Paulo Pinto said, but the funding was part of a four-year grant, and was cut off at year two.
“We did not anticipate that such an essential and life-saving program … would be so hastily cut midway through the contract, without consideration for the impact in our communities and organization,” Pinto said.
His organization provides health, education and social services to the Brazilian and Portuguese communities of Somerville, Cambridge, Allston-Brighton and Everett.
Beside that reduction in mental health support for victims and survivors and domestic abuse and sexual assault, Maps lost $17,000 in city funding in August for a social worker who provided public benefit and basic-need assistance to 320 clients. The organization closed its Brighton office around that time as well.
At around 140,000 people, Brazilians are the largest immigrant community in Massachusetts, according to a Boston Foundation report last year. The group is now also the most detained by federal agents in an immigration crackdown, according to data tracked through late July and reported by WGBH and The Boston Globe – out of 2,800 residents of Massachusetts taken by federal agents, around 780 were Brazilian.
More than 30 people who live or work in Somerville have been detained since the start of the calendar year, estimated Denise Taylor, a city spokesperson, and “overwhelmingly” those apprehended have been of Brazilian origin.
More funding concerns
In the office of The Welcome Project at Somerville’s Mystic public housing development, there are worries that future funding cuts “may be due to fear or direct regulations around giving funding to organizations that serve immigrants,” executive director Sara Kirubi said in an email.
Her organization, which hosts English classes, youth programs and community-strengthening advocacy efforts for many Latin American immigrants in Greater Boston, already lost roughly 30 percent of its expected government revenue this fiscal year, or roughly 7 percent of its total funding. Though already recouping most of those funds through private foundations and individual donors, Kirubi said TWP remains short-staffed since last year and is unable to expand much-needed programming. A third of the immigrants represented by the organization speaks Brazilian Portuguese, and one-quarter, respectively, speak Spanish and Haitian Creole.
The Brazilian Women’s Group expects to lose funding in 2026 “due to the extremely difficult situation our community is going through,” co-founder Heloisa Maria Galvão and volunteer Lucimara Rodrigues said in an email, and while the organization does not get direct federal funds, the loss may be felt indirectly as foundation awards dry up. They said their work goes on to provide rent, food and utility assistance and legal services to the Brazilian community.
Galvão said she was “thankful” for funds received in 2024 and this year, and for her group’s partner community organizations, which sometimes share expenses.
City promises coordination
Local government officials are hearing anecdotes of “cross-sector anxiety on the potential impact of broad federal cuts,” a Somerville spokesperson said.
The office of Strategic Planning and Community Development has heard of “reported challenges and specific cuts” for Maps, Somerville-Cambridge Elder Services and the Community Action Agency of Somerville, the spokesperson said, and the Office of Immigrant Affairs and city officials will continue to “monitor policy changes, coordinate with local nonprofit partners about service gaps and problem solve to continue to provide services even as the national headwinds shift.”
The office, which provides immigrants and multilingual neighbors access to government resources and information, saw a 6 percent increase in Somerville’s budget for the 2026 fiscal year. This will help ensure the department’s ability “to continue serving and celebrating immigrant communities despite a challenging political environment,” the spokesperson said.
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