Immigration and Justice
Vera's Center on Immigration and Justice (CIJ) works with government, nonprofit partners, and communities to improve government systems that affect immigrants’ lives. CIJ focuses on two objectives: increasing immigrants’ access to legal services, and improving relationships between immigrant communities and law enforcement. The center administers legal services programs, develops and implements pilot programs, provides technical assistance, and conducts evaluation and empirical research.
Featured
Translating Justice
The Translating Justice Initiative aims to enhance access to the justice system for those who experience communication and cultural barriers. This initiative focuses on developing and providing resources, nationwide training, and support to victim service providers, law enforcement agencies, legal service providers, and courts to increase language ...
Project
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Caitlin Gokey
Police Perspectives Guidebook Series
Building Trust in a Diverse Nation
According to the 2010 Census, 37% of the U.S. population reported their race and ethnicity as something other than “non-Hispanic White alone.” The numbers of people of color have increased by almost 30% between 2000 and 2010, and by 2060, they will make up nearly 60% of the country. Our country is diversifying rapidly and, despite their best effort...
National Qualified Representative Program
Providing legal representation for immigrants with mental health disorders.
The National Qualified Representative Program (NQRP) provides appointed legal representation for immigrants who are detained by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), unrepresented by counsel, and who have been found by an Immigration Judge or the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) to be incompetent to represent themselves in their immigration ...
Project
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Michael Corradini
Related Work
Immigration Court Helpdesk
The Immigration Court Helpdesk (ICH) program educates non-detained immigrants in removal (deportation) proceedings about the court process. The goal of ICH is to help individuals make informed decisions about their legal cases and, in doing so, improve the efficiency and effectiveness of immigration court proceedings. Vera works with five nonprofit...
Project
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Marina Caeiro
Police and Communities Must Work Together to Support Victims of Hate Crimes
After the 2016 presidential election, unusually large numbers of children and adults all over the United States have reacted by expressing hate, bigotry, and racism, contrary to our best principles of equality. Hate crime has been unleashed—with swastikas painted in playgrounds and schoolyards, attacks on Muslim school girls and cries of “build the...
Blog Post
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Laura Simich
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Jacob Kang-Brown
Improving Responses to Hate Crime
Validating a Bias-Crime Victim Assessment Tool
Vera is studying experiences of hate crime (also known as bias crime) among Latino, immigrant, youth, and LGBT communities in New Jersey and Los Angeles County, California. We aim to develop a practical tool to help communities and law enforcement improve responses to hate crime, with the ultimate goal of ensuring access to equal justice for people...
Project
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Laura Simich
Compstat 2.0
Compstat 2.0 is an effort to help law enforcement agencies integrate community policing strategies with existing Compstat (data-driven crime monitoring) processes. In partnership with the Police Foundation, Vera plans to develop, test, and implement a community policing model for nationwide adoption. While community...
Project
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Susan Shah
For illustrative purposes only.
Evaluation of justice AmeriCorps Legal Services for Unaccompanied Children Program
The number of unaccompanied immigrant children arriving in the U.S. has grown exponentially in recent years. Most are escaping conflict and gang violence in their home countries. After arrival, they are scheduled for immigration hearings, but often face the court without legal representation. This program uses the AmeriCorps service model to provi...
Project
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Laura Simich
The role of police in suburban immigrant integration
In 2012, the majority of the country’s metropolitan regions saw faster growth in suburbs than in cities. By 2014, it was estimated that more than half the U.S. population lives in suburbs. This incredible growth of suburban America has led to tectonic demographic shifts in these communities, which are struggling to keep up with the influx of immigr...
Blog Post
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Caitlin Gokey
New York Immigrant Family Unity Project lays groundwork for constitutional victory
A recent decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit established that an immigrant is constitutionally entitled to a bond hearing within six months of being detained and must be released on bond unless the government provides compelling evidence that he or she is a flight risk or danger to the community. This important dec...
Blog Post
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Bettina Rodriguez Schlegel
Gaining Momentum
The New York Immigrant Family Unity Project expands to the Ulster Immigration Court
Unlike in the criminal justice system, people in deportation proceedings do not have the right to counsel to assist in their legal defense. As of November 2015, however, 40 New Yorkers confronted with deportation proceedings at the Ulster Immigration Court in Napanoch, New York will no longer have to face a judge on their own. With funding from the...
Blog Post
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Grace Paras
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Marina Caeiro
Language Access Resources for Working with Unaccompanied Children
A significant number of children who enter Office of Refugee Resettlement custody do not speak English. Communicating with these children can be challenging for attorneys and other service providers. To respond to this need, Vera’s Unaccompanied Children Legal Services Program has produced three resources: Glossary of Legal Spanish - A bilingual (...
Struggle for Identity and Inclusion
Unaccompanied Immigrant Youth in New York City
Vera partnered with Fordham Law School’s Feerick Center for Social Justice to conduct a research study that explores the needs and experiences of New York City’s unaccompanied immigrant youth. The study, Struggle for Identity and Inclusion: Unaccompanied Immigrant Youth in New York City, draws upon the personal expertise of these youth and system s...
Struggle for Identity and Inclusion
Unaccompanied Immigrant Youth in New York City
Youth have been arriving at U.S. borders on their own since the early days of Ellis Island, but it was not until the summer of 2014—when the number of unaccompanied immigrant youth arriving to the United States from Central America increased nearly tenfold from recent years—that child migrants became the topic of an urgent political debate. While l...
Uniting Communities Post-9-11
Tactics for Cultivating Community Partnerships with Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, and South Asian Communities
To help local law enforcement agencies negotiate the cultural, religious, ethnic, racial, and language barriers that exist between them and Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, and South Asian (AMEMSA) communities, Vera has produced Uniting Communities Post-9/11. Funded by the Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, this gu...