News

Sharing their Humanity in the Face of Trump’s Hatred: IDP and IJN Partners Bring Criminalized Immigrant Leaders to Congress Post-Election

Alisa Wellek, Executive Director Immigrant Defense Project This month, IDP joined activists, elected officials, and its Immigrant Justice Network partners (Immigrant Legal Resource Center and National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild) in Washington DC for Immigrants Speak Out: Day of Resistance Against Criminalization and Anti-immigrant Bills. There is still much work to be done to educate Members of … Read more »

Briefs and Decisions

Farhane v. U.S., 77 F.4th 123 (2d Cir. 2023) — Padilla, denaturalization:Brief of IDP in Support of Petitioner Brief of IDP in Support of Petitioner-Appellant’s Petition for Rehearing En Banc B- v. Garland, 23-6142 (filed with 2d Cir. 2023) — Y-L-, withholding of removal: Brief of IDP and NILA in Support of Petitioner Challenging Matter of Laguerre and immigration impact … Read more »

May 22 Rally: One Day to Protect New Yorkers Act

On May 22nd, the Immigrant Defense Project, Fortune Society, and over 100 advocates and elected officials, are heading to Albany to hold a rally calling on the legislature to support the One Day To Protect New Yorkers Act – a bill that would reduce the maximum sentence for a Class A Misdemeanor by just one day, from 365 to 364. This small change … Read more »

Litigating in the 2nd Circuit Post-Jennings

New Detention Resources! IDP is pleased to share two practice advisories to support detention litigation in the 2nd Circuit following the Supreme Court’s decision in Jennings v. Rodriguez: IDP Practice Advisory: Making Constitutional Arguments in the Second Circuit to Challenge Prolonged Mandatory Detention after Jennings and Lora IDP and NYU Immigrant Rights Clinic and Practice Advisory: Making Statutory Arguments in … Read more »

Talking Points on Dimaya v. Sessions

Talking Points in Response to White House Statements on Loopholes in our Immigration Laws after the Dimaya v. Sessions Decision  One page talking points responding to White House attacks on recent Supreme Court victories as “loopholes” by Immigrant Justice Network, Immigrant Legal Resource Center, Immigrant Defense Project, National Immigrant Justice Center, and National Immigration Project of the National Lawyer’s Guild Issue … Read more »

Courthouse Legal Resources

Amicus Brief in Support of Motions to Terminate ICE Out of Courts Homepage Immigrants in removal proceedings can move to terminate proceedings if ICE has engaged in conduct that is consciousness shocking or violates fundamental rights. ICE’s widespread practice of courthouse arrests meets this standard, and therefore IDP encourages respondents who were arrested in or around a courthouse to file … Read more »

ICE Courthouse Policies

Annotated ICE Directive on Civil Immigration Enforcement Actions at Courthouses ICE Out of Courts Homepage On January 10, 2018, ICE issued its first formal, public policy memo on immigration enforcement actions inside courthouses and subsequently updated its FAQ on Sensitive Locations and Courthouse Arrests. The Immigrant Defense Project and the NYU Immigrants Rights Clinic have published this annotated document to provide legal and factual … Read more »

Episode7: Podcast Extra: The Only Weapon I have is My Voice

Previous episode | Main Page A lot has happened since the series was released this past summer–in particular there’s been a lot of talk about DACA: Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. The program has protected thousands of undocumented people from deportation since 2012. But recently the Trump Administration announced it would phase out DACA in March 2018. I wanted to see … Read more »

IDP featured in The New Yorker!

IDP’s ICE out of Courts work was featured in an article in The New Yorker.  The piece focuses on Sergio Perez, who was arrested following a family court hearing, and ultimately torn apart from his family after ICE deported him to Mexico City.  The increase in ICE presence and arrests in courthouses undermines universal access to justice and public safety, … Read more »

6th Edition of Representing Immigrant Defendants in NY

On September 19, IDP released the sixth edition of Representing Immigrant Defendants in New York (2017). This essential resource by Manny Vargas provides information about the foundations of crim-imm and strategies to avoid adverse immigration consequences in criminal and immigration proceedings. This sixth edition has been updated to include case law developments through June 2017 and is available for sale on our website at www.immdefense.org/manual. A … Read more »

ICE Out of Courts New York State Campaign

The Protect Our Courts Act is now law in New York State! On December 15, Governor Cuomo signed the Protect Our Courts Act into law. This law will keep ICE officers from arresting individuals going to or leaving court, bringing relief from the constant threat of ICE surveillance and arrest for immigrants.  Find out more about what this means in … Read more »

DACA Renewals: Representing Clients with Contacts with the Criminal Legal System

In light of the Trump Administration’s decision to end DACA, IDP has created two new resources — one for immigration attorneys handling DACA renewals for clients with criminal histories and one for criminal defense attorneys on how to advise clients about DACA.  These resources are housed on our new #DefendDACA page. We have also compiled other useful resources recently released on our website at: www.immdefense.org/daca-resources/.

Updated resources page for Family Court practitioners

IDP is breaking new ground by raising awareness of the negative immigration consequences that can result from contact with the Family Court system.  We now have an updated resources page for Family Court practitioners, including a new advisory created with NYCLU on the potential risks for immigrants of requesting fingerprints from DJCS.

DACA & Clean Dream Resources

Click to view the ICE Out of the Courts Campaign!

Immigrant Defense Project stands with the young people who are now at risk due to the Trump Administration’s shameful September 5, 2017 announcement that it will end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, and with all immigrants who face deportation. Read our joint statement with The Fortune Society here. Now, unless Congress acts quickly to pass the Dream Act, bipartisan legislation that would provide a path to legalization, by the end of this year, those young people and their families will once again have to live with the threat (and promise) of deportation overshadowing their every move.

Republicans and Democrats, both long-time supporters of the Dream Act during its 17-year history, have begun negotiations on the provisions of the bill. Some of these proposed “bargains” – from increasing the volume of immigration enforcement operations and the number of immigration agents to ramping up the detention and deportation of other members of the immigrant community – are unacceptable.

Across the country, we’re standing united to call for nothing less than a clean Dream Act, one that is free of any mechanisms that seek to increase deportations and that humanely leans upon our nation’s longtime commitment to inclusivity and opportunity.

For Advocates and Community Members – NEW RESOURCE!

FIGHTING for CLEAN DREAM: Talking Points on Criminalization, Enforcement, and Border Militarization – This resource is being disseminated by the United We Dream Network and was created by a collective of communicators at organizations who have decades of experience working to uphold the human rights of all immigrants while fighting against mass criminalization, detention, and deportation. Representative organizations of this collective include: the Immigrant Defense Project, the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, Enlace, Grassroots Leadership, the National Immigrant Justice Center, the National Immigration Law Center, the United We Dream Network, the Southeast Asian Resource and Action Center, and the Detention Watch Network. The Southern Border Communities Coalition provided additional support on talking points related to border militarization.

For Immigration Lawyers

DACA Renewals: Representing Clients with Contacts with the Criminal Legal System – guidance for those assisting clients who have been arrested, ticket, cited, or had another contact with the criminal legal system submitting applications to renew DACA before October 5, 2017.

For Criminal Defense Lawyers

Practice Advisory: Advising Clients After the Announcement of the End of DACA – guidance on advising criminal defense clients in light of the September 5, 2017 announcement about the end of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival program.

Information About the Current State of DACA

Click to view our Know Your Rights Materials
FAQs and Updates About DACA, Make the Road New York
DACA Updates, United We Dream
DACA’s Impact on Black Immigrants, Black Alliance for Just Immigration

Información General sobre la Terminación del DACA