Results

The Immigrant Legal Resource Center continues to write and publish the most accessible and comprehensive guide on citizenship and naturalization in the country. This indispensable guide thoroughly addresses the entire process of representing a naturalization applicant from the initial client meeting through the oath of allegiance. Included in this guide are sample forms, practice guides and tips, and many other critical tools for both private attorneys and practitioners working with community-based organizations. One of the strengths of this resource is that it is very easy to read and understand for lawyers, community advocates, paralegals, community and labor organizers, and teachers. With dozens of examples demonstrating the legal concepts and thousands of citations to the law, regulations, and court cases, the reader will be thoroughly prepared to do the legal research necessary to successfully support their clients in applying for and winning naturalization.

California Post-Conviction Relief for Immigrants: How to Use Criminal Courts to Erase the Immigration Consequences of Crimes guides advocates through how to use criminal courts to erase or mitigate the immigration consequences of convictions. This accessible resource provides beginner practitioners with a clear introduction to post-conviction relief and provides experienced advocates with techniques and strategies to improve their practice using new legal tools.

This manual includes everything that a practitioner needs to know about California post-conviction relief, including how to identify when an individual may benefit from post-conviction relief, how to obtain copies of court records, choosing a vacatur vehicle, negotiating with opposing counsel, demonstrating equities, successfully litigating your case, and defending your victory in immigration court. This guide highlights the new and evolving landscape of post-conviction relief in California, discussing recent legislative reforms and how to use them to erase and mitigate the immigration consequences of crimes.

The appendix contains practical tools for every provider including post-conviction relief screening questionnaires and model motions, orders, declarations, and much more. Though this manual focuses on post-conviction relief vehicles available in California, the strategies and suggestions are applicable to post-conviction relief practices across the country.

The Immigrant Legal Resource Center created the first comprehensive manual about parole in immigration law in 2016 to provide practitioners with a one-stop guide to the legal requirements of all the different types of parole, practice pointers about when and how to file for parole, and discussions of the evolving issues in parole policy. Parole in Immigration Law thoroughly addresses the three main types of parole: advance parole, humanitarian parole, and parole-in-place. The appendices include numerous sample parole applications and cover letters; USCIS, ICE, and CBP memoranda on parole issues; a sample RFE; an advance parole cover letter template; travel checklist; and many other essential tools for both private attorneys and nonprofit practitioners exploring parole as an option for their clients.

The U Visa: Obtaining Status for Immigrant Survivors of Crime will guide you through the entire process of handling an immigration case for a U visa petitioner—from eligibility screening for U nonimmigrant status, to communicating about the waitlist, bona fide determination, and deferred action, to adjustment of status, to assisting eligible family members, and to helping U nonimmigrants travel.

While public charge has been a part of our immigration laws for more than a hundred years, changes including actions taken by the Trump and Biden administrations brought renewed attention to public charge law. The Trump-era changes to public charge are no longer in effect, however immigrant families and communities continue to fear public charge repercussions when they access public benefits.

This publication provides an overview of asylum law for advocates new to representing asylum clients, as well as seasoned practitioners needing a thorough review of current standards. Combining innovative legal arguments on currently developing issues and decades of expertise from accomplished practitioners who have successfully represented clients through the years, Essentials of Asylum Law offers an expansive explanation of the legal theories and rules underpinning current asylum claims.

This webinar will provide an introduction to special immigrant juvenile status (SIJS) - a unique path to immigration status for young people under the age of 21. We will provide an overview of the legal requirements and process of seeking SIJS and SIJS-based adjustment of status, all the way from state juvenile court to adjustment of status.

ILRC attorneys will describe how to file requests through the Freedom of Information Act process at USCIS, both online and with a G-639. The speakers will describe recent changes to FOIA processes and policies at all DHS components including CBP, OBIM, and ICE.

Confused about the difference between the I-601 and I-601A, I-212 versus 212(h) waivers, or how exactly one may waive the permanent bar? This webinar will cover some of the most common waivers of inadmissibility including waivers of unlawful presence, fraud and misrepresentation, 212(h) waiver of certain criminal grounds, and more. We will explain the requirements and process for seeking each of these waivers and close with some practice tips for preparing a strong waiver application.

This webinar will cover the latest developments in asylum law for practitioners who are already familiar with the fundamentals of asylum. The legal framework for asylum has been in a prolonged state of upheaval. The expiration of the Title 42 executive order in May 2023 was met with the new “lawful pathways” asylum ban, whose legality is currently being litigated in federal court. Meanwhile, new policies are impacting asylum procedures at various stages, including changes to the credible fear process and the Asylum Merits Interview framework. This webinar will provide an overview of these changes as well as practice tips and strategies to help advocates determine how they can best represent asylum-seeking clients in this everchanging landscape.

Currently, thirty-eight states permit medical use of marijuana; twenty-three of these states fully permit recreational use; and the District of Columbia permits both uses. Still, marijuana remains on federal drug schedules and is treated for immigration purposes like any controlled substance. A conviction or just an admission of conduct relating to marijuana, or even lawful employment in the growing cannabis industry, can bring terrible immigration consequences.

This interactive national webinar will cover how state-legalized marijuana is helpful to immigrants, how it can be legally harmful, and strategies for how to advise and defend noncitizens in order to prevent legal damage.

This webinar will address some of the more challenging aspects of representing clients eligible for VAWA benefits, such as issues relating to the representation of VAWA applicants who do not identify as female, gathering evidence of emotional abuse, public benefits available to VAWA applicants, alternatives to VAWA adjustment, and selected adjustment and naturalization issues that may arise.

Since the Supreme Court’s decision in Pereira v. Sessions in 2018, there has been a long line of caselaw about whether a Notice to Appear (NTA) missing the time, date or location of proceedings strips the immigration court of jurisdiction to hear a case, triggers the stop-time rule in various contexts, or is sufficient for the issuance of an in absentia removal order. In this webinar, we will discuss how to challenge a NTA that is missing the time, date, or location of proceedings, and we will review the latest caselaw on this topic, including Matter of Fernandes, 28 I&N Dec. 605 (BIA 2022). We will also discuss best practices for preserving arguments for appeal, even when BIA or circuit court caselaw is not on our side.

ILRC attorneys and guest speaker Bill Bliss will give an overview of the USCIS naturalization test redesign announced in December 2022. The redesign proposes a reading-based multiple-choice test to evaluate a naturalization applicant’s knowledge of civics, instead of the current oral questions. A new test of English knowledge would involve photo prompts that an applicant would need to describe. This would replace the current evaluation of English which occurs during the interview as the officer asks questions and verifies information from the N-400 naturalization application. Educators of low-literacy adults believe that these changes would make the test significantly more difficult for applicants. This is a free webinar.

Since the federal government has failed to provide immigration reform, often times the only way to prevail in immigration court is to vacate your client’s prior criminal conviction or sentence to avoid deportation or to render your client eligible for some type of relief from removal. In this webinar, you will learn how to effectively vacate convictions in criminal court to meet the required Pickering standard of “legal invalidity”. We will take a deep dive into what constitutes “prejudicial error” pursuant to recent case law. In addition, we will discuss how to use the new resentencing laws and vacaturs enacted for victims of human trafficking and domestic violence to also help our noncitizens. Lastly, you will learn best practices to defend your vacatur in immigration court.

This webinar will provide immigration practitioners with an overview of the current prosecutorial discretion landscape after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Texas, 599 U.S. ___(2023). We will discuss how DHS is applying its recently reinstated enforcement priorities and strategies to continue advocating for prosecutorial discretion during various stages of a case.

This training will provide an overview of the legal elements for naturalization, including lawful admission as an LPR, continuous residence and physical presence requirements, the English/civics requirement, exceptions, and the disability waiver, as well as the requirements for the oath. We will also discuss red flag issues that can cause an applicant to be denied or even deported.

We will review how the CSPA protects certain family-based beneficiaries of immigrant visa petitions and how to calculate the CSPA age. We will also review when the Visa Bulletin is involved, and when and how visa regression affects the CSPA age. Finally, we will touch on the rules regarding recapturing priority dates, discuss strategies for clients in danger of “aging out” who may not be protected by CSPA, and address a recent USCIS policy update pertaining to CSPA.

Temporary Protected Status (TPS) is an important form of humanitarian relief for people from certain designated countries that have experienced armed conflict, natural disaster, or other conditions that prevent nationals from returning safely. There has been a significant increase in the number of designated countries in recent years as well as important policy changes. This webinar will offer a snapshot of recent TPS designations, extensions, and re-designations. Next, it will provide an overview of TPS requirements and red flags, including how to screen applicants and prepare initial TPS requests. Finally, it will review the benefits of TPS, including re-registration and the new travel policy for TPS holders.

This webinar will cover the different ways that U petitioners can include derivatives, including at the time of filing the principal application, after the principal application has been filed, and after the principal application has been approved. Using hypotheticals, the webinar will also discuss common challenges that arise in U derivative cases, such as after-acquired relationships, extensions of status, and U derivatives abroad.