Anti-Fraud Campaign
Overview of the Anti-Fraud CampaignILRC Announces Major Immigration Fraud Public Awareness Campaign. The ILRC has been a leader in the educational campaign to warn immigrants about immigration fraud. Too often, immigrants fall prey to scam artists that promise them an easy path to legal status only to cheat them out of their hard-earned money and, often, put them at risk of deportation. To combat this problem, ILRC has produced and distributed thousands of graphic novels, or comic books, in English, Spanish and Chinese that warn immigrants about typical immigration fraud scams.
Who Decides? Overview of Chevron, Brand X and Mead Principles
"A brief overview of principles governing deference to an agency may be useful to practitioners new to this area. In immigration law, the immigration judge and the BIA may resolve almost all issues presented in an immigration case, and DHS and the AG will address many issues in regulation or other policy rulings." By Kathy Brady.
The DREAM Act (Español)
El DREAM Act (Acto de Sueño) es la legislación federal propuesta que ayudaría a los estudiantes trabajadores realizarse sus sueños de legalizar su estatus migratorio. Específicamente, el DREAM Act ofrecería un estatus legal y el acceso a la asistencia financiera para los jóvenes que se han graduado de un high school estadounidense o que han recibido el GED, que entraron a los EEUU antes de cumplir los 16 años, y que tienen por lo menos cinco años en los EEUU. Para calificar, cada estudiante tendría que cumplir o dos años de educación superior o dos años de servicio militar estadounidense.
Update on INA § 212(h) Defense Strategies
"Many Permanent Residents Are Not Subject to the § 212(h) Permanent Resident Bar; The Eleventh Circuit Reaffirms § 212(h) as a Direct Waiver of Deportability; Using § 212(h) When LPR Cancellation is Not an Option" by Kathy Brady
Practice Advisory: Adjustment of Status Following an Admission Does Not “Re-Start” the Five-Year Clock for Purposes of the Moral Turpitude Deportation Ground
Matter of Alyazji, 25 I&N Dec. 397 (BIA 2011), overruling in part Matter of Shanu, 23 I&N Dec. 754 (BIA 2005).
The DREAM Act
The DREAM Act is proposed federal legislation that would help thousands of hard-working students realize their dreams of legalizing their immigration status. Specifically, the DREAM Act would provide legal status and access to financial aid to those young people who have graduated from a high school in the United States or received a GED, entered the United States before they were 16 years of age, and have been in the United States for at least five years. In order to qualify, each student would have to complete two years of higher education, or serve in the United States Armed Forces for at
Document Gathering for Citizenship: The Oakland Model
Written by Doug DiSalvo East Bay Citizenship Network May 1999
Off-Site Processing of Naturalization Examinations
by ILRC Staff Attorneys, 1996
Profile of Organizing Efforts of Proyecto Campesino
This report is an introductory narrative of how Proyecto Campesino and O.L.A. Raza conduct community organizing, rural leadership development, and civic participation campaigns using radio programs, naturalization assistance, citizenship classes, and civic action leagues comprised of immigrant membership. Farmworker organizations can duplicate and adapt some of the information and organizing techniques in their own communities that these two dynamic organizations have been using for years.
Anti-Fraud Assistance
ILRC Technical Assistance
Beyond Traditional Lawyering
To read the monograph detailing the ILRC's work on social change lawyering, please download the following file:
Document Gathering for Self-Petitioning Under the Violence Against Women Act: A Step-by-Step Guide
This guide is designed to walk you through the document-gathering requirements under the 1994 Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) and its more recent revisions and updates. Though not a comprehensive explanation of the law or its requirements, it is instead a user-friendly resource to gathering the necesary documents for a VAWA self-petition.
Immigration Benchbook for Juvenile and Family Courts
Immigration Benchbook for Juvenile and Family Courts, Updated July 2010 (PDF, 2010) This is a national benchbook for juvenile and family court judges on various immigration related issues including: Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, adoption, VAWA, U Visas, divorce, child custody, immigration consequences of delinquency and crime, and immigration enforcement.
Model Code of Responsibility of BIA-Accredited Representatives
This model code was written as a collaboration between our staff and accredited representatives around the country. It was inspired, in part, by the complaint heard occasionally (mostly from attorneys) that, while attorneys have a code of ethics to which they are bound, accredited representatives have no such code.
Immigration Criminal Law Resources for California Criminal Defenders
A description of critical resources available for California criminal defenders defending noncitizens:
Practice Advisory by Katherine Brady on the Supreme Court Case Nijhawan v. Holder
Practice advisory by Katherine Brady on the Supreme Court case Nijhawan v. Holder, which deals with the categorical approach and aggravated felonies.
Policy Platform for Immigration Justice
In ILRC’s A Platform for Immigrant Justice: Executive Action the Biden Administration Must Enact we outline bold, urgent and necessary policy solutions the Biden administration must enact to ensure immigration benefits are more equitable and accessible and that the work of dismantling the oppressive systems of enforcement, detention and surveillance begins.
Letter to USCIS on Policy Manual Changes to Physical Presence Requirement for Asylee/Refugee Adjustment
On February 2, 2023, USCIS announced changes to the Policy Manual guidance on the one-year physical presence requirement for asylee/refugee adjustment. In a comment letter on February 16, 2023, ILRC commended USCIS on the changes. We believe they will increase fair and consistent adjudications for asylees and refugees seeking adjustment.
ILRC Comments on SB 602
ILRC comments on Texas House Committee on Homeland Security and Public Safety Testimony on SB 602.
Trump’s Day 1 Executive Orders: Focus on Criminalization and Detention
On January 20, 2025, Donald Trump issued more than a dozen Executive Orders (EOs) that seek to sow fear in immigrant communities. These orders seek to militarize our borders and immigration enforcement more broadly, massively expand the existing deportation and detention machinery, punish organizations that care for immigrants as well as local governments that prioritize protecting their residents, and misinterpret the U.S. Constitution and immigration laws. They attempt to do everything from effectively ending asylum and birthright citizenship to teeing up immigration bans and expansive