News

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

National Resources

ICE Out of Courts Campaign Toolkit IDP’s campaign work responding to ICE courthouse raids and arrests has focused on a statewide campaign in New York, and on working with partners in other states as part of what has become a national movement. This toolkit presents materials generated by IDP, the ICE Out of Courts Coalition (#ICEOutofCourts), and national partners in … Read more »

Redadas de Inmigración

Durante años, IDP ha estado buscando, solicitando información, y entrenando miembros de la comunidad, en materia de redadas y arrestos de inmigración (ICE*). Para desafiar la práctica de redadas de ICE, las comunidades deben entender las tácticas de ICE, ayudar a aquellos que están en riesgo de deportación, y preparar estrategias para pelear organizadamente y/o en las cortes. * ICE, … Read more »

La Guía Sobre Redadas y Arrestos de ICE

Defensa contra las redadas y los arrestos comunitarios de ICE (actualizada en julio del 2017) – esta guía es una colaboración entre Immigrant Defense Project (IDP) y Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), y la culminación de nuestro trabajo colectivo contra las redadas en hogares por Control de Inmigración y Aduanas (Immigration and Customs Enforcement, o ICE) durante las administraciones de … Read more »

Episode 6: Podcast Extra: A Lot of Fire and Hope and Struggle

Previous Episode | Main Page | Next Episode Over the past several weeks, Indefensible Podcast has brought you the stories of real people from across the country who have fought deportation well before the Trump administration. In each of the five episodes, we held space for immigrants to speak about their experiences in their own words. With other on-the-ground advocates and organizers, … Read more »

Episode 5: Let My People Stay

Previous Episode | Main Page | Next Episode For updates, visit istandwithravi.org Long-time resident, community activist, father, and husband, Ravi Ragbir, has fought against permanent exile from life in the U.S. for over 11 years. For Ravi and his family, it’s been a fight to take back control over their life. Only a few months after Trump took office, Ravi mobilized a large … Read more »

ICE in New York State Courts Survey

Since the election, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has substantially increased the number of immigrants it targets in New York State Courts. For more information, visit our Ice out of the Courts campaign. As a result, many advocates are hearing from immigrants that they have a profound fear of going to court. This includes immigrants who need access to the … Read more »

Episode 4: Cooking Up Resistance

Previous Episode | Main Page | Next Episode Patrick Thaxter is a former chef who now works quietly in the kitchen of a good friend in Germantown, Philadelphia. Originally from Jamaica, he traveled to the U.S. for a soccer tournament eighteen years ago. On that trip, he met an American woman at a Miami club and the two fell in … Read more »

Eyes on ICE Webinar Materials

On June 13, 2017, IDP & WITNESS co-hosted a webinar on the power and perils of filming ICE. Find more information here.  Below are slides organizers and advocates can use to train people about their right to film ICE, as well as how to share photographs or videos safely and ethically. The slides are formatted as .jpg files, which can … Read more »

PCR Referral form

*This form is for attorney-use only. If you are not an attorney, please contact us through the IDP hotline and we will assist you. Referral guidelines: Vacatur of plea/sentence reduction must clearly improve immigration situation (e.g., avoid deportation, remove bar to green card, make eligible for discretionary relief/waiver, etc.) No more than one felony conviction requiring 440 relief, or two … Read more »

Episode 3: Fighting to be with the People You Love

Previous Episode | Main Page | Next Episode In 2016, William Diaz Castro was arrested at his home in New Orleans by ICE agents who were looking for someone else. He was charged with “illegal reentry” because he had been deported to Guatemala before. But this time, William’s wife Linda and their son witnessed the traumatic arrest. William is a … Read more »

Eyes on ICE – Information on documenting encounters with immigration agents

Para leer información sobre este seminario web, hacer click aquí | Part 1: Know Your Rights & Practical Tips for Filming ICE   Part 2 of EYES ON ICE: Community approaches to documenting and organizing around encounters with immigration agents Watch the recording here As Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) expands the deportation system, communities and grassroots groups are continuing to fight back, … Read more »