The Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC) immigration attorneys’ expertise focuses on family-based immigration, humanitarian relief, naturalization and citizenship, immigration enforcement, and removal defense.
Since 1979 we have helped expand the immigration expertise of attorneys, nonprofit staff, criminal defenders, and others assisting immigrant clients.
In addition to authoring the ILRC’s practice manuals, our expert attorneys have been published by Continuing Education of the Bar (CEB), American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), ILW.com, Huffington Post, Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law, Center for Law and Social Policy, The Hill, LexisNexis Emerging Issues, and Fox News Latino.
We have also provided training to National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), American Bar Association Commission on Immigration, Federal Bar Association, The State Bar of California, Legal Aid Association of California, Judicial Council of California and more.
Advocates may find that some state court judges are unfamiliar with Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS), or uncomfortable with their role in helping an individual access a form of federal immigration relief. This resource is intended to help advocates address the concerns of state courts with respect to Special Immigrant Juvenile Status petitions.
Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) cases, involving a claim of abuse, abandonment or neglect against one parent while the child resides with the non-offending parent, are commonly referred to as one-parent cases. These cases, though permissible under the plain language of the statute as well as federal agency interpretation, have proved challenging particularly at the state court phase of the application process and at times before U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the agency that adjudicates SIJS petitions. This advisory is intended to be a primer for practitioners to help them successfully advocate for SIJS where one-parent SIJS claims are involved.
This document is an outreach flyer that can be given to potentially eligible DAPA applicants who are the parent of a Lawful Permanent Resident (“Green Card holder” or “LPR”) or to the LPR child, directly, that explains basic eligibility requirements for naturalization and the benefits of naturalizing.
This document provides dividers to help potentially eligible DAPA applicants organize their documents according to the DAPA eligibility criteria.
This document is intended to help potentially eligible deferred action applicants document all their addresses since moving to the United States.
This document is meant to be given to potentially eligible deferred action applicants to document their absences from the United States to help legal services providers evaluate their eligibility for DAPA and DACA.
This advisory discusses how the Supreme Court's opinion in Johnson v. United States may affect selected offenses under California law, and what criminal defense and immigration advocates can do now.
In November 2014, California voters passed Proposition 47, a historic record changing opportunity. The below resources are aimed at educating community members, advocates, and lawyers on the immigration benefits of Proposition 47.
An immigration enforcement infographic showing what happens when local law enforcement cooperates with ICE. The infographic shows who in our communities are captured by immigration enforcement, how they are captured, and what can happen to community members thereafter.
This toolkit for organizers explains how ICE co-opts local law enforcement into immigration enforcement, and how communities can fight to disentangle them. Along with sample questions for local law enforcement and tools for monitoring immigration enforcement activities in your community, this toolkit explains the new enforcement landscape under PEP-Comm and other ICE programs and gives fundamental background information about how ICE is at work in local jails.
This practice advisory describes the recent increase in RFEs and NOIDs in Special Immigrant Juvenile Status cases, in which USCIS is requesting documents from the underlying state court proceedings. The advisory details arguments against disclosing state court documents and information to USCIS, and provides guidance on setting up your SIJS petitions for success from the outset.
In recent years, California’s appellate courts have provided guidance on the state court’s role in Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) cases. The following decisions clarify many of the common questions that these cases present in state courts, including one-parent SIJS, notice and service issues, and the role of the state court.
Effective January 1, 2016, a new California drug law will help defendants avoid catastrophic immigration consequences for minor offenses.
A review of four different models used throughout California, in advising noncitizen defendants of the immigration consequences of criminal offenses. This protocol provides interviews with defenders currently practicing these models, as well as practical tips and resources in establishing similar models in your jurisdiction.
This chart shows the effect that immigration law gives to different types of state post-conviction relief, including the new California Penal Code § 1203.43.
To read the monograph detailing the ILRC's work on social change lawyering, please download the following file:
by ILRC Staff Attorneys, 1996
This report is an introductory narrative of how Proyecto Campesino and O.L.A. Raza conduct community organizing, rural leadership development, and civic participation campaigns using radio programs, naturalization assistance, citizenship classes, and civic action leagues comprised of immigrant membership. Farmworker organizations can duplicate and adapt some of the information and organizing techniques in their own communities that these two dynamic organizations have been using for years.
Matter of Alyazji, 25 I&N Dec. 397 (BIA 2011), overruling in part Matter of Shanu, 23 I&N Dec. 754 (BIA 2005).
"Many Permanent Residents Are Not Subject to the § 212(h) Permanent Resident Bar; The Eleventh Circuit Reaffirms § 212(h) as a Direct Waiver of Deportability; Using § 212(h) When LPR Cancellation is Not an Option" by Kathy Brady
El DREAM Act (Acto de Sueño) es la legislación federal propuesta que ayudaría a los estudiantes trabajadores realizarse sus sueños de legalizar su estatus migratorio. Específicamente, el DREAM Act ofrecería un estatus legal y el acceso a la asistencia financiera para los jóvenes que se han graduado de un high school estadounidense o que han recibido el GED, que entraron a los EEUU antes de cumplir los 16 años, y que tienen por lo menos cinco años en los EEUU. Para calificar, cada estudiante tendría que cumplir o dos años de educación superior o dos años de servicio militar estadounidense.
"A brief overview of principles governing deference to an agency may be useful to practitioners new to this area. In immigration law, the immigration judge and the BIA may resolve almost all issues presented in an immigration case, and DHS and the AG will address many issues in regulation or other policy rulings." By Kathy Brady.