Results

Level: Beginner / Intermediate
This webinar will cover withholding of removal and protection under the Convention Against Torture (CAT). It will discuss the differences between asylum, statutory and CAT withholding of removal, and CAT deferral of removal and review the current case law and recent developments. It will also provide tips to help argue for withholding or CAT as an alternative in an asylum case as well as prepare standalone withholding or CAT claim for clients who are asylum-barred or otherwise ineligible.
Presenters
Andrew Craycroft
Andrew joined the ILRC in May 2019 as a Staff Attorney focusing on immigrant youth issues. Prior to joining the ILRC, he worked at Staten Island Legal Services representing clients in a variety of affirmative and defensive immigration matters. Previously, Andrew worked at the Unaccompanied Minors Program of Catholic Charities Community Services in New York, representing detained and released unaccompanied minors in removal defense.

Andrew received his J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center, where he participated in the Center for Applied Legal Studies Clinic. Andrew earned his B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley, where he majored in Political Economy of Industrial Societies. Andrew is admitted to the bar in New Jersey and New York. He is fluent in French and Spanish with some knowledge of Italian, Portuguese, and Arabic.

Priscilla Olivarez
Priscilla Olivarez is a Policy Attorney and Strategist based in San Antonio, Texas. In her role with the ILRC, Priscilla works alongside other Texas advocates to develop and promote local and state policies that protect the dignity of immigrant communities. Prior to joining the ILRC, Priscilla was a Managing Attorney at American Gateways (AG), a nonprofit organization that provides direct legal services in immigration matters. While at AG, Priscilla focused her efforts on representing and assisting individuals who were in immigration detention. She helped manage the organization's Legal Orientation Program, providing assistance to unrepresented individuals in immigration detention, as well as its National Qualified Representative Program (NQRP), which provides legal representation to individuals deemed mentally incompetent in immigration proceedings. Priscilla also provided direct representation to individuals in detention, with a focus on advocacy for individuals with mental disabilities or other heightened vulnerabilities. Priscilla has represented clients before the Immigration Court, the Board of Immigration Appeals, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Priscilla's other advocacy experience includes working abroad, providing legal support to survivors of human trafficking in the Philippines. Priscilla has also advocated on behalf of survivors of domestic violence and volunteered near the Texas-Mexico border representing unaccompanied minors in immigration proceedings. Outside of her immigration work, Priscilla has advocated for fair housing for vulnerable populations, and worked to coordinate a national research study that examined racial discrimination in the housing market.

Priscilla is a graduate of Texas Tech University School of Law and is licensed to practice law in Massachusetts, Texas, and before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Level: Beginner

This webinar will cover the unique nature of U nonimmigrant status, including the U petition, U waiver, the bona fide determination process, the U waitlist, and U adjustment of status. The presenters will discuss in detail the eligibility criteria for U nonimmigrant status, covering trends and practice tips.

Presenters
Alison Kamhi - Legal Program Director, ILRC

Alison Kamhi is the Legal Program Director based in San Francisco. Alison is a dedicated immigrant advocate who brings significant experience in immigration law to the ILRC. Alison leads the ILRC's Immigrant Survivors Team and conducts frequent in-person and webinar trainings on naturalization and citizenship, family-based immigration, U visas, and FOIA requests. She also provides technical assistance through the ILRC’s Attorney of the Day program on a wide range of immigration issues, including immigration options for youth, consequences of criminal convictions for immigration purposes, removal defense strategy, and eligibility for immigration relief, including family-based immigration, U visas, VAWA, DACA, cancellation of removal, asylum, and naturalization.

She has co-authored a number of publications, including The U Visa: Obtaining Status for Immigrant Victims of Crimes (ILRC); FOIA Requests and Other Background Checks (ILRC); Naturalization and U.S. Citizenship (ILRC); Hardship in Immigration Law (ILRC); Parole in Immigration Law (ILRC); Special Immigrant Juvenile Status and Other Immigration Options for Children and Youth (ILRC); A Guide for Immigrant Advocates (ILRC); and Most In Need But Least Served: Legal and Practical Barriers to Special Immigrant Juvenile Status for Federally Detained Minors, 50 Fam. Ct. Rev. 4 (2012).

Alison facilitates the eight member Collaborative Resources for Immigrant Services on the Peninsula (CRISP) collaborative in San Mateo County to provide immigration services to low-income immigrants in Silicon Valley.

Prior to the ILRC, Alison worked as a Clinical Teaching Fellow at the Stanford Law School Immigrants' Rights Clinic, where she supervised removal defense cases and immigrants' rights advocacy projects. Before Stanford, she represented abandoned and abused immigrant youth as a Skadden Fellow at Bay Area Legal Aid and at Catholic Charities Community Services in New York. While in law school, Alison worked at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project, and Greater Boston Legal Services Immigration Unit. After law school, she clerked for the Honorable Julia Gibbons in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

Alison received her J.D. from Harvard Law School and her B.A. from Stanford University. Alison is admitted to the bar in California and New York. She speaks German and Spanish.

Jennefer Canales-Pelaez - Texas Policy Attorney & Strategist, ILRC

Jennefer joined the ILRC in 2022. Jennefer has advocated for immigrant rights from the age of 11 when she advocated for her father’s immigration status to the President at the time, George W. Bush. Although her father was ultimately deported, Jennefer dedicated her life and career to ensuring that no one else experiences the trauma she felt at the age of 11.

She graduated from Occidental College with a B.A. in Sociology in 2012 and earned her Juris Doctor from Southwestern Law School in 2016. Jennefer is a member of the State Bar of California and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Jennefer has been involved with ICE out of LA, Southwestern Immigration Law Clinic, National Immigration Law Center (NILC), Esperanza Immigrant Rights Project, Immigrant Defenders Law Center (IMMDEF), Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA) and worked with the Los Angeles Immigration Court. Jennefer is a former board member and co-president of the National Lawyers Guild-LA Chapter, former Apen Ideas Scholar and KIPP Accelerator. After moving back to her hometown, Houston, Texas in 2019, she represented survivors of gender-based violence at Tahirih Justice Center prior to joining the ILRC. Jennefer was nominated as one of Houston’s Unsung Heros in 2020 and is a current KIPP Texas board member.

Brooke Parr - Directing Attorney, ICWC San Diego

Brooke joined ICWC in 2011, helping to introduce ICWC services to the San Diego community. She represents clients in VAWA, U Visa, Adjustment of Status, guardianship, SIJS, and DACA cases. Brooke often provides trainings to local law enforcement agencies and community-based organizations on U Visa and VAWA. Prior to ICWC, Brooke worked at Casa Cornelia Law Center (CCLC) in San Diego, devoting her time to providing free legal services to indigent immigrants. During her time with CCLC, Brooke held various positions, including Pro Bono Program Director and Domestic Violence Program Director. Brooke received her J.D. degree from the University of Southern California Gould School of Law and graduated from Stanford University with a B.A. in Psychology and a B.A. in Spanish. During her time at USC, Brooke worked as an intern at Public Counsel Law Center in Los Angeles and participated in USC’s Children’s Rights Clinic. She gained experience assisting families who were adopting children who had been abused, abandoned, or neglected and assisted attorneys with guardianship and Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) cases. She also served as Notes Editor for her honors journal, Southern California Review of Law and Social Justice (RLSJ) and authored a publication for RLSJ, regarding the benefits received by families adopting children from the foster care system who have special needs. Brooke is admitted to the California bar and is fluent in Spanish.

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.

For practitioners already familiar with the basics of family-based immigration, this webinar will focus on the adjustment of status process for individuals pursuing permanent resident status through a family member here in the United States, including various pathways to adjustment and red flags. We will compare 245(i) eligibility and traditional adjustment under 245(a), as well as strategies for establishing adjustment eligibility.

This webinar will discuss FOIA requests in immigration cases and provide tips for filing FOIA requests with DHS, including USCIS, OBIM, ICE and CBP. The webinar will cover comment exemptions and reasons for denials and the appeals process. In addition, speakers will discuss recent challenges that have arisen with FOIA requests and describe litigation impacting FOIA.

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.

In this webinar, we will explore the various ways a criminal incident can impact an application for non-LPR cancellation. We will look at the criminal conviction bars, good moral character, the stop-time rule, and discretion. This is an opportunity for those familiar with the basics of Non-LPR Cancellation to think through how to analyze the eligibility of clients with some potential bad facts in the mix.

Naturalization for Persons with Disabilities: This webinar will cover the 2022 changes to the naturalization disability form N-648 and the USCIS Policy Manual. Speakers will describe the exemptions from the English and Civics naturalization requirements, eligibility for the disability exemption, restrictions added in 2018 and 2020 to the USCIS Policy Manual, and USCIS changes in October 2022. The statutory background and USCIS Policy Manual on oath waivers will also be covered.

Cancellation of removal under the Violence Against Women Act (“VAWA”) is a generous though often overlooked form of relief for abused noncitizens faced with removal proceedings. VAWA cancellation often benefits abused spouses and sons and daughters even when VAWA self-petitioning and adjustment is no longer possible due to missed deadlines and “age-outs.” This webinar will discuss the qualifying relationships necessary for relief, the basic eligibility requirements for VAWA cancellation, as well as the statutory and regulatory bars to cancellation that are applicable. We will also compare and contrast eligibility for VAWA cancellation with VAWA self-petitions and nonLPR cancellation.

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 discuss whether recent resentencing laws and vacaturs enacted for victims of human trafficking and domestic violence meet the Pickering standard. Lastly, we will discuss how to effectively defend your vacatur against attacks by ICE and DHS.

In this webinar, we will discuss the distinction between motions to terminate, remand, reconsider and reopen. We will discuss which motion to file depending on the posture of your case in immigration court. We will take a deep dive into motions to reopen including how to make effective equitable tolling and sua sponte arguments. In addition, we will discuss hurdles to overcome if your client has departed the United States after the vacatur. Lastly, we will learn how to successfully obtain a bond redetermination hearing in immigration court pending the motion to reopen with the BIA.

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.