Supporting Immigrants
The image of America as a nation of immigrants has never been more true to life. Forty-two million foreign-born people live in the United States; a new immigrant arrives every 28 seconds. Unlike previous generations, they’re moving beyond traditional gateway cities to make homes in large and small communities throughout the country, some of which were virtually untouched by immigration until recently.
With our partners in government, we’re working to ensure that justice, in the form of fundamental legal protections and services, is available to them. That involves building trust between immigrant communities and local law enforcement agencies and overcoming language barriers, so that the motto “protect and serve” genuinely applies to everyone. We’re also working to understand and meet the needs of the growing number of vulnerable children who enter the United States alone, and giving people facing deportation—many who have lived here for years—a fair shot in immigration court.
Featured
Universal Representation for Immigrants Facing Deportation
Vera seeks to ensure that no detained immigrant will face deportation without legal representation through our work on the New York Immigrant Family Unity Project (NYIFUP), our participation in the California Coalition for Universal Representation (CCUR), and our efforts to replicate locally-funded counsel programs nationwide. To keep families toge...
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Oren Root
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 ...
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Caitlin Gokey
Engaging Police in Immigrant Communities (EPIC)
The Engaging Police in Immigrant Communities (EPIC) project is a national effort to identify and assess promising law enforcement practices that cultivate trust and collaboration with immigrant communities. The project uses information collected from a comprehensive study of hundreds of law enforcement agencies across the country to offer practical...
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Caitlin Gokey
Related Work
Reimagine Justice
Vera Institute Eleventh Annual Gala
On Thursday, April 20, 2017, justice reform leaders and supporters joined the Vera Institute of Justice for Vera’s 11th Annual Gala, Reimagine Justice. Honorees discussed approaches to criminal justice reform and the future of the movement in a very different federal climate. Samuel David Flores Murillo, a client of Vera’s recently expanded New Yo...
Reimagine Justice
Vera Institute Eleventh Annual Gala
Reimagine Justice
The Fight of Our Lives
With law and order rhetoric coming from our nation's capitol, we're in the fight of our lives to keep the promise of criminal justice reform alive and strong. From working to keep immigrant families together, to reforming a bail system that criminalizes poverty, to ending the use of solitary confinement and reimagining justice with human dignity a...
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...
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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
What This Election Means for Criminal Justice Reform
It is not even 72 hours after the election, and the entire world is trying to assess the impact of an election result that will surely produce a dramatic restructuring across a broad array of issues and geographies—including justice reform, which we struggle and fight for along with you. As in any election and assumption of power, there will be a ...
Blog Post
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Nicholas Turner
Trauma-Informed Policing
Interview with Captain Altovise Love-Craighead
Philadelphia Police Department Captain Altovise Love-Craighead discusses the fundamentals of trauma-informed policing, including how de-escalation can interrupt cycles of violence. The central tenets of trauma-informed policing are introduced and examples are given as to how these principles can be applied in real-world policing situations.
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
Series: Gender and Justice in America
The intersection of immigration and criminal justice for women, girls, and transgender people
Americans are currently in a self-reflective mood: Primary voting turnout for the 2016 Presidential election has so far been extremely robust, with no hint of slowing down—a sure sign people are invested in who we are and where we are going as a country. Related to this political interest is the ongoing desire of many to see policy change in two of...
Blog Post
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Juhu Thukral
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