The Department of Homeland Security detains hundreds of thousands of immigrants every year throughout the United States. This entirely unnecessary, inhumane practice is wrought with extreme human rights abuses, and severely erodes the few due process protections provided to immigrants in removal proceedings.
The Immigrant Legal Resource Center works in partnership with a broad array of organizations including impacted immigrants themselves, to advocate for policies that create a path toward abolishing this abusive system. Our team works at the forefront of statewide campaigns to dismantle immigrant detention, as well as engaging in federal advocacy in Washington, DC. In California, the ILRC has been leading on these issues for several years -- co-sponsoring California’s historic Dignity Not Detention Act (SB 29), which was first introduced in 2016. We have continued this work by pushing for stronger legislative protections around immigration detention, for example by advocating for AB 103 in 2017 and AB 32 in 2019. The ILRC is available to provide support on similar laws or policies in other states. Locally, the ILRC provides resources and support to communities and organizations working to fight immigration detention and other enforcement issues, including background explanations, strategy tools for campaigns, and legal and policy analyses.
Latest Resources
FAQs & Explainers
Resources
Publication Date
11/14/2024
While U.S. immigration laws provide certain special protections to children migrating without a parent or legal guardian on account of their vulnerabilities, these laws and policies fall short of both domestic and international child welfare principles. Those impacted by and involved with U.S. systems for responding to child migrants have known for years that they do not meet the needs of most children. This resource aims to demonstrate that a different approach to how the United States welcomes migrant children, particularly as relates to their time in government custody/detention, is not just possible but necessary.
FAQs & Explainers
Resources
Publication Date
09/07/2023
In June 2023, the California Dignity Not Detention Coalition passed a budget initiative in California called HEAL (Healthy Economies Adapting to Last). HEAL dedicates 5 million dollars to incentivize California localities to divest from immigration detention by providing them funding to invest in new industries and jobs. HEAL presents a new tool in our advocacy toolbox to close detention centers once and for all. This community FAQ breaks down Dignity not Detention’s newest initiative.
Toolkit & Reports
Resources
Publication Date
05/23/2023
The prison industrial complex is a highly adaptive mechanism that is constantly shifting to sustain itself. In recent years, the movement against mass incarceration has gained traction in reducing penal incarceration in the United States. In this report in collaboration with the Detention Watch Network, we detail select case examples of jails and prisons that closed for one purpose, only to cage a different group of people. The case studies demonstrate the importance of looking ahead to strategies which ensure that cages remain closed for all carceral uses, once and for all.
FAQs & Explainers
Resources
Publication Date
05/03/2023
An immigrant legal defense fund pays legal service providers to represent community members facing deportation in immigration court. This resource provides a general overview of immigrant legal defense funds (ILDFs) at the municipal level in Texas, including why they are needed, the goals and components of a strong ILDF, and examples of these funds from across the state.
Resources
Resources
Publication Date
09/27/2022
On September 26, 2022, the Ninth Circuit en banc panel held that GEO group was likely to succeed in their lawsuit to find California's private prison and dertention ba (Bonta-AB 32) unconstitutional, and could continue seeking a preliminary injunction to block the law pending further proceedings at the lower court level. This summary provides a review of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ en banc decision. This legal breakdown was composed by the California Dignity Not Detention Coalition, with special thanks to NIPNLG and Pangea Legal Services.
FAQs & Explainers
Resources
Publication Date
09/07/2022
This resource summarizes the ICE Parental Interests Directive – a critical tool to help child welfare agencies address challenges for detained or deported parents – and explains how to use the Directive to advocate with ICE. It also discusses the heightened need for advocacy during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Practice Advisory
Resources
Publication Date
06/28/2022
Clients with mental illness have needs and vulnerabilities that present unique challenges in immigration proceedings. This practice advisory provides an overview on advocating for clients with mental health issues, specifically focusing on representation in the detained setting. The advisory discusses legal authority that an immigration practitioner can utilize to protect a client’s due process rights and ensure their client’s agency is respected and they have a meaningful opportunity to present their case.
Practice Advisory
Resources
Practice Advisory for Immigration Advocates: The Biden Administration’s Final Enforcement Priorities
Publication Date
05/04/2022
DHS issued new enforcement and prosecutorial discretion guidance on September 30, 2021. This practice advisory from the ILRC, NIPNLG, and IDP provides immigration practitioners with an overview of the enforcement priorities and other key policy changes described in recent DHS and ICE memos, and discusses strategies to use these priorities to advocate for prosecutorial discretion.
Practice Advisory
Resources
Publication Date
12/01/2021
DHS issued new enforcement and prosecutorial discretion guidance on September 30, 2021. This practice advisory from the ILRC, NIPNLG, and IDP provides criminal defense practitioners with an overview of the enforcement priorities and other key policy changes described in recent DHS and ICE memos, and discusses strategies to use these priorities to advocate for prosecutorial discretion.
FAQs & Explainers
Resources
Publication Date
10/12/2021
A quick digest of the new DHS immigration enforcement priorities released in September 2021.
FAQs & Explainers
Resources
Publication Date
10/05/2021
AB 32 (People Not Profit) signed in 2019 and effective January 2020, outlaws criminal and civil private incarceration in California, with some exceptions. Some brief months after AB 32 was signed, private prison company GEO Group Inc. and the Trump administration sued California aiming to strike down this momentous law. Federal District Court Judge Sammartino largely upheld AB 32, afterwhich GEO and the Biden administration appealed to the Ninth Circuit.
Related Products
Webinar
Webinar
In this webinar, we will discuss how asylum seekers, including recent entrants, can seek release from immigration custody via bond and parole. We will review eligibility for bond and parole for arriving aliens, and the implications of Matter of M-S-, 27 I&N 509 (AG 2019) on asylum seekers. We will also discuss who may seek bond before the immigration judge and strategies for the bond hearing. This webinar will leave advocates armed with tips and best practices when representing asylum seekers requesting release from detention.
Video
Video
Immigration detention has been expanding at record rates under the Trump Administration, but many of us are fighting detention in all kinds of new and innovative ways. This webinar will provide new advocates and organizers with important background information for understanding ICE detention contracts and the different laws and policies that shape the detention map. Then we will discuss strategies and considerations for fighting detention contracts and facilities, and how to challenge detention as it exists now while holding our goal of a truly prison-free future in mind.
Video
Video
This webinar provides key communications tools to uplift a values-based narrative and push back against anti-immigrant scapegoating, in support of the VISION Act (pending state bill which strengthens the CA Values Act) and other similar policy asks. The webinar provides a brief overview of the VISION Act, and then focuses largely on messaging and communications. Specifically, the webinar covers talking points and communications tactics needed to push back when our opposition uses fear-mongering and scapegoating to exclude people with crimes from protection. This webinar is aimed at ensuring that we all have the communications tools to turn our policy asks into a reality.To access this recording, please email gruiz@ilrc.org.
Video
Video
At this critical time when hundreds of thousands of people are taking to the streets to affirm that Black Lives Matter, the right to join in any type of protest is critical to a functioning democracy. Whether you are calling out institutional racism, police brutality, or ICE, this webinar will provide special considerations for noncitizens thinking about participating in protests. In particular, we will provide information on best practices for noncitizen protesters, potential immigration consequences stemming from a criminal arrest or charges, and how immigrant rights work intersects with the Black Lives Matter movement.
Webinar
Webinar
Level: BeginnerThis webinar will help advocates understand how the immigration detention and deportation system works for unaccompanied children (UCs), whether they migrated alone or with a parent or other family member and were later separated. It will help demystify the maze of immigration policies and procedures that apply specifically to UCs, including a discussion of which children are classified as UCs, the federal agencies that interact with UCs, the detention and release process for UCs, and updates on how the Biden Administration has responded to increased numbers of UCs.PresentersRachel Prandini, Staff Attorney - ILRCRachel is one of ILRC’s staff attorneys based in San Francisco. Rachel focuses on immigrant youth issues, including unaccompanied minors and immigrant youth in the juvenile justice and child welfare systems. Rachel provides technical assistance and trainings to immigration and state court attorneys, social workers, and judges. She works on statewide and national policy that affects the rights of immigrant youth and is frequently consulted for her expertise in Special Immigrant Juvenile Status. Rachel co-authored the ILRC’s publication Special Immigrant Juvenile Status and Other Immigration Options for Children and Youth.
Webinar
Webinar
Level: IntermediateThis webinar will discuss FOIA requests in immigration cases and provide tips for filing FOIA requests with DHS, including USCIS, OBIM, ICE and CBP. Researching clients’ case histories may become particularly important if any of the proposed legalization bills are enacted.