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.
These flyers are for community members and can be used to screen people into eligibility, give information about the possible benefits and provide ideas for what people can do now to prepare.
This FAQ explains questions of legal authority for local law enforcement agencies to be involved in immigration enforcement. Specifically, the document reviews recent court decisions and examines how the law is evolving in regard to ICE detainers, administrative immigration warrants, and other immigration enforcement mechanisms that local law enforcement may encounter. The FAQ clarifies that even if there is probable cause to believe that a person is unlawfully present, this is not a basis to arrest, because local law enforcement officers do not have authority to enforce civil immigration law.
This is an annotated chart that provides quick access to the differing crimes bars to DAPA and DACA.
Obtenga aquí las respuestas a las preguntas más comunes sobre este nuevo programa para obtener una licencia de manejar en California.
The first handout, "AB 60 California Driver’s License: Frequently Asked Questions," is aimed at immigration attorneys and provides an overview of frequently asked questions regarding AB 60 licenses, including some common red flags. The second handout, "Preguntas Acerca de la AB 60," is aimed at community members and written in Spanish. It provides answers to common questions such as whether it is safe to apply for an AB 60 license depending on prior criminal or immigration history.
Special Immigrant Juvenile Status is a unique, hybrid form of immigration relief that requires the involvement of state courts before a child is eligible to apply for a special immigrant juvenile visa with U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services. This guide includes an overview of the process of requesting SIJS findings in different types of state courts in California, providing answers to common questions about this process as well as practice pointers for different types of proceedings in California.
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: