BOSTON — Gov. Maura Healey approved a $5 million legal defense fund for immigrants as part of the fiscal year 2026 state budget she signed Friday, a pot of money supporters say helps people fight deportations but critics knock as providing protections to those in the country illegally.

The decision by Beacon Hill Democrats to provide state-funded legal services to immigrants brings Massachusetts in line with other states and comes as President Donald Trump’s administration has cracked down on people who are allegedly in the country illegally.

Amy Grunder, director of state government affairs at the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, said the money will help immigrants access attorneys to better navigate confusing and complicated immigration laws and courts.

“This representation isn’t going to give them rights that they don’t have,” Grunder told the Herald. “The idea is, if they have a legal remedy to deportation, they will have access to it because they have an attorney. In other words, it’s not creating any new right. It’s giving them access to the rights that they already have and the due process that they need.”

Immigrants are five times more likely to win relief from deportation if they are represented by a lawyer, according to a coalition of organizations, including MIRA, dubbed the Protect Our Immigrant Communities campaign.

For those already detained, immigrants with a lawyer are 10 times more likely to win relief than those without one, the campaign said in a statement.

Healey, a first-term Democrat who is up for reelection next year, green-lighted the cash in the nearly $61 billion fiscal year 2026 budget she signed into law last week.

The budget language for the immigration legal services program directs the state Office for Refugees and Immigrants to shuttle cash to select nonprofit organizations “to increase access to legal representation for immigrants and refugees in the commonwealth, including.”

Organizations that help immigrants with legal services include places like the Catholic Charities Refugee and Immigrant Services, Greater Boston Legal, or Ascentria Care Alliance.

The budget sets aside $75,000 from the more than $5 million pool for the Brazilian American Center in Framingham to “administer and facilitate immigrant legal services, advocacy, and related assistance.”

A spokesperson for the Executive Office of Health and Human Services, which oversees the Office for Refugees and Immigrants, did not immediately respond to a set of Herald questions sent Monday morning.

Other states already provide public funding to help immigrants facing deportation find attorneys.

In California, state lawmakers recently tightened rules around access to a state-backed legal defense fund, according to reporting from CalMatters. The City of Chicago also provides funding for immigrants to obtain legal status and fight back against deportations.

ACLU of Massachusetts Executive Director Carol Rose said the Trump administration is “fast-tracking mass deportations, disregarding due process, and instilling fear in Massachusetts communities.”

“One of the key ways to fight back is to make sure no immigrant is forced to defend their life, liberty, or family without a lawyer by their side. Massachusetts leaders know this,” Rose said in a statement.

But Republicans criticized the decision to spend state cash on legal services for immigrants.

Mike Kennealy, a Republican running for governor, said Healey has already used billions “in tax dollars to subsidize shelters, food, transportation, rental assistance, education, and health care.”

“This latest $5 million is yet another insult to taxpaying legal residents and will further cement Massachusetts’ status as a sanctuary state under Healey’s leadership,” Kennealy said in a statement. “On day one, I will declare that Massachusetts is not a sanctuary state and sign legislation to close the gaping holes in our policies that make us one.”

Brian Shortsleeve, another Republican running for Massachusetts governor, said Healey “has her priorities backward.”

“She cuts local projects out of the state budget, but $5 million for lawyers for the migrants survives her veto pen. Our taxpayer dollars should not be funding lawyers for people who are not legally in our country. This is another slap in the face to every hard-working Massachusetts taxpayer,” Shortsleeve said in a statement to the Herald.

As Healey signed the fiscal year 2026 budget last week, the Democrat also said she was prepared to slash millions in earmarks for local projects if Massachusetts’ fiscal standing took a hit because of Trump’s decision to cut federal funding to states across the country.

Healey’s top budget writer said last week that her administration was not immediately cutting local earmarks to balance the state budget, but instead planned to wait to hand over cash to cities and towns until later this fall to allow for more time to assess federal funding impacts.

Grunder said immigrants are often “long-time Massachusetts residents who have been contributing members of our state for, in some cases, decades.”

“In light of the federal administration that’s committed to the mass detention and deportation of immigrants and obvious violations to due process in the process of that, we think it’s really important that immigrants have the ability to defend themselves in immigration court,” Grunder said.

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