The Engaging Police in Immigrant Communities (EPIC) project works to overcome barriers that exist between law enforcement and the neighborhoods they serve. The project provides law enforcement agencies with useful information—drawn from other jurisdictions—about promising practices for strengthening their relationships with immigrant communities.

The Legal Orientation Program (LOP) was created to inform immigrant detainees about their rights, immigration court, and the detention process. On behalf of the federal government’s Executive Office of Immigration Review, program staff work with nonprofit legal service agencies to provide the program at 27 detention facilities across the country.

The National Immigrant Victims' Access to Justice Partnership works with law enforcement agencies to provide training on the U-visa, which provides legal immigration status for victims of crime who cooperate with law enforcement. With its partner in the project, Legal Momentum, Vera is providing law enforcement agencies nationwide with training and tools for using the U-visa.

Translating Justice works to overcome communication barriers between law enforcement and communities—such as immigrant enclaves—where many people do not speak or understand English well. The project provides police and law enforcement agencies with training, tailored consulting services, and research on promising practices in the field.

The Unaccompanied Children Program coordinates a nationwide effort to increase volunteer, or pro bono, legal representation for immigrant children with no parents or adult guardians to assist them as they undergo removal (deportation) proceedings. These children may be fleeing poverty, war, or other dangerous circumstances on their own, or they may have lost contact with an adult along the way. They are held in shelters or detention centers run by the Division of Unaccompanied Children’s Services, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR).

The United Communities project builds law enforcement’s capacity to engage Muslim, Arab, and South Asian (MASA) communities in preventing crime. The U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services has funded Vera to partner with three law enforcement agencies and explore the challenges and opportunities of working with MASA communities to support homeland security goals. The project will generate information and resources relevant to community-policing activities in other jurisdictions.