Areas of Expertise

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.

Fee Waiver Community Alert

06/13/2019

This community alert provides key information about upcoming changes to the fee waiver process, which allows some applicants to submit their immigration applications without having to pay the filing fee if they cannot afford it. In the coming months, one of the easiest and most straightforward ways of proving that you qualify for a fee waiver request will be going away. Find out more information...

Public Charge as a Ground of Deportability

06/11/2019

Under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), any noncitizen who “within five years from the date of entry, has become a public charge from causes not affirmatively shown to have arisen since entry is deportable.” In current practice, this ground of deportability rarely comes up in pending removal proceedings or as a reason for the initiation of removal proceedings. In May 2019, Reuters...

Fact Sheet About Gubernatorial Pardons in California

06/04/2019

Gubernatorial pardons have become an increasingly important and accessible tool for immigrants to erase certain immigration consequences of criminal convictions. This two-page primer, written in collaboration with the UCLA School of Law Criminal Defense Clinic and available in both English and Spanish, provides an overview of the California Pardon process for potential applicants and their...

Diversion and Immigration Law

05/29/2019

Diversion refers to a variety of programs that seek to avoid the processing of a defendant through the traditional criminal legal system. The goal of diversion is to direct an individual who has been accused of a crime into a treatment or care program as an alternative to imprisonment and/or prosecution. Diversion can take many forms, depending on how and when the diversion program is introduced...

National Map of 287(g) Agreements

05/22/2019

What is 287(g)? 287(g) is a program for allowing state and local agencies to act as immigration enforcement agents. Under 287(g), ICE forms an agreement with a state or local agency - most often a county sheriff that runs a local jail - and this agreement delegates specific immigration enforcement authority to designated officers within the local agency. These agreements are also known as “287(g...

National Map of Local Entanglement with ICE

05/22/2019

Understanding Local Law Enforcement Involvement in Deportations The federal immigration system continues to expand and grow more punitive, and its impact depends in large part on the voluntary time and resources of local governments and law enforcement agencies. There is no legal obligation for localities to use their resources to help with immigration enforcement. Some local and state officials...

Immigration Benefits for Surviving Relatives

05/16/2019

This advisory covers three possible immigration remedies that beneficiaries might be able to pursue if a family member dies during the immigration process.

HSI Backgrounder

05/13/2019

As the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration policies have increasingly come under scrutiny, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), a division within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), has played an increasingly significant role in carrying out brutal tactics to target immigrants for deportation. This backgrounder serves to demystify HSI and show that funding for HSI is...

Understanding ICE’s Warrant Service Officer Program

05/10/2019

FAQ about ICE’s newest model of 287(g), the Warrant Service Officer (WSO) program.

Bexar County Cite & Release

05/09/2019

Starting in June 2019, Bexar County and San Antonio will implement "cite and release," a new administrative policy that seeks to reduce arrests. The policy directs law enforcement officers to use their discretion to issue citations for low-level, non-violent offenses.

Fee Waiver Template Comment

05/06/2019

On April 5, 2019, the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) published a proposed change to fee waiver eligibility and process. The April 5 notice announces USCIS’ intention to proceed with a plan, previously published on September 28, 2018 , to eliminate receipt of means-tested public benefits as a way to demonstrate inability to pay certain...

Totality of the Circumstances: Assessing the Public Charge Ground of Inadmissibility

05/03/2019

For the last twenty years, a “public charge” has been defined as a person “primarily dependent on the government for subsistence, as demonstrated by either the receipt of public cash assistance for income maintenance, or institutionalization for long-term care at government expense.” This test has evolved during the 20th century and may be poised to change under the current administration. This...

Comparison of Criminal and Inadmissibility Grounds for American Dream and Promise Act of 2019, DACA and TPS

04/30/2019

This resource, co-authored by the ILRC and United We Dream (UWD), compares the criminal and inadmissibility grounds for Titles I and II of the American Dream and Promise Act of 2019 with DACA and TPS.

Practice Alert: Upcoming Elimination of Means-Tested Benefits as Basis for Fee Waiver Requests

04/22/2019

On April 5, 2019, DHS announced it intends to proceed with proposed changes to the fee waiver process, most significantly by eliminating receipt of means-tested benefits as a basis for requesting a fee waiver. This practice alert provides a brief overview of some of the main changes practitioners can expect with the rule change. We do not know exactly when the revised Form I-912 and fee waiver...

Stop 287(g) Now!

04/22/2019

All seventy-eight 287(g) agreements in the country will expire on June 30, 2019. This is a crucial opportunity to prevent your community from continuing its participation in this terrible program, which incentivizes racial profiling and has led to thousands of deportations. Watch this webinar to learn more about the 287(g) program and how to end these agreements in your community.

If you are interested in accessing the recording, please contact Lena Graber, lgraber [at] ilrc.org...

287(g) FOIA Documents

04/15/2019

Collected pages from a FOIA to ICE that relate to the 287(g) program. Includes documents from all over the country, including 287(g) applications and needs assessments, emails about joining the program, MOAs, and other records.

Ending 287(g) Nationwide

04/15/2019

The 287(g) program allows designated local law enforcement .officers to enforce civil immigration law s According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the 287(g) program led to more than 7,000 deportations in 2018. In 287(g) jurisdictions, ending these contracts are an essential first step to disentangling local law enforcement from ICE, which is why we’ve tracked and mapped these...

Ending 287(g): A Toolkit for Local Organizers

04/15/2019

The Trump administration has vowed to increase 287(g) agreements, which deputize state and local law enforcement officers to undertake various duties of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. Indeed, as of the date of this publication, 49 of the 78 total 287(g) agreements were created during this current administration, and the number will likely continue to increase. However, all of...

Ending 287(g) In Texas

04/14/2019

The 287(g) program allows designated local law enforcement officers to enforce civil immigration laws. According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the 287(g) program led to more than 7,000 deportations in 2018. There are currently 25 287(g) agreements in Texas, all of which began under the Trump administration. This is on top of the requirements of assistance to ICE imposed by SB4,...

USCIS Fraud Tip Form Fact Sheet and Template Comment

03/29/2019

On February 15, 2019 the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) published a proposed form for notice and comment to collect information from the general public regarding purported immigration fraud. The publication of this form signals another dangerous and insidious shift in USCIS’s transformation from an agency serving immigrants and adjudicating...

Understanding Unlawful Presence Under § 212(a)(9)(B) and Unlawful Presence Waivers, I-601 and I-601A

03/28/2019

This advisory explains unlawful presence under INA § 212(a)(9)(B) and the differences between the I-601 and I-601A waivers of unlawful presence. It covers who needs a waiver of unlawful presence, what are the requirements for a waiver of unlawful presence, and which waiver process to use depending on the applicant’s circumstances.

Annotated DACA Application Guide

03/25/2019

This guide is for individuals whose DACA expired after September 5, 2016 and are looking to file a “renewal” application in the coming months. The guide includes annotated forms I-821D, I-765 and I-765ws which form a renewal application packet. If an individual’s DACA expired on or before September 5, 2016 or was DACA terminated, they will need to file an application as a “renewal-initial.” This...

How to Avoid Mandatory ICE Detention

03/19/2019

Update: Note also that the Supreme Court has reversed the Ninth Circuit's beneficial decision in Nielsen v. Preap. See alert in this advisory, and we will issue an updated version of the advisory soon. Noncitizens with certain criminal records are subject to mandatory immigration detention under INA § 236(c), 8 USC § 1226(c). This means that they may remain detained during the weeks, months, or...

California Quick Reference Chart

03/12/2019

This page offers resources on “crim/imm,” the law governing the intersection of immigration and crimes, especially as it applies to California law. This page includes the Public-Facing California Chart , Analysis: Selected Defenses to Selected California Crimes , as well as a series of short articles on crim/imm entitled Notes. Immigration advocates and criminal defenders can access additional...

Dismantling Detention Webinar

03/01/2019

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.

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Areas of Expertise

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