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.
Issues
Spotlights
Featured
Universal Representation for Immigrants Facing Deportation
Vera seeks to ensure that no 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 through the SAFE Cities Network...
Project
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Marina Caeiro
Safety and Fairness for Everyone (SAFE) Network
Local Leaders Keeping Immigrant Families Together and Communities Safe
In the face of stepped-up immigration enforcement, millions of non-citizens—many of them taxpaying lawful permanent residents—are at risk of extended detention and permanent separation from their families and communities. Expanding legal representation for immigrants facing detention and deportation has thus become a crucial last line of defense fo...
Project
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Annie Chen
Immigrant Connection Project (ICON)
Are you an immigrant parent who has been separated from your child(ren) and is trying to reconnect? Are you a legal services provider who knows a parent looking for their child? The Immigrant Connection Project (ICON) can help. Attorneys or parents seeking children should: Email familyconnect@vera.org or familiasunidas@vera.org.Call 800-845-8372...
Project
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Anne Marie Mulcahy
Related Work
The State of Justice Reform 2018
Arrest Trends
Interactive data tool on policing trends at the national and local levels
Embracing Human Dignity
Annual Report 2018
Embracing Human Dignity
Annual Report 2018
The Vera Institute of Justice is working to radically transform incarceration in America by replacing punishing practices with an approach that prioritizes compassion, true accountability, healing, restoration, opportunity, and hope. Learn more about our commitment to human dignity in our annual report 2018.
Local Government on the Right Side of History
The SAFE Network is a diverse group of local jurisdictions dedicated to providing publicly funded representation for people facing deportation. This short video describes the need for and impact of SAFE from the perspective of network members and those directly impacted—local government leaders, attorneys, and clients.
SAFE Network Profiles
Compiled from publicly-available data, these infographics present a “Profile of the foreign-born population” for each of the jurisdictions in the Safety and Fairness for Everyone (SAFE) Network—a diverse group of localities dedicated to providing publicly-funded representation for people facing deportation. The data presented here reveals the criti...
Advancing Universal Representation
A Toolkit for Advocates, Organizers, Legal Service Providers, and Policymakers
SAFE Network
Successes at One Year and Expanding the Movement for Universal Representation
A Year of Being SAFE
Insights from the SAFE Network’s First Year
The SAFE (Safety and Fairness for Everyone) Network is a group of 12 diverse local jurisdictions, convened by the Vera Institute of Justice, that have committed public taxpayer dollars toward legal representation for immigrants in their communities facing deportation. During its first year, the SAFE Network represented hundreds of clients with deep...
Why Does Representation Matter?
The Impact of Legal Representation in Immigration Court
Representation before any court of law is a matter of fundamental fairness. However, immigrants facing deportation are entitled to representation paid for by the government only in extremely limited circumstances, despite the high stakes involved in these proceedings. A growing body of research demonstrates the need for representation and its signi...
SAFE in Less than 60 Seconds
Annie Chen, program director of the SAFE Network, explains the need for representation in immigration court. Additional photography by: Elvert Barnes, Jonathan Mcintosh, Christopher Sessums and Jim McDougall via Creative Commons.
Walls and Bridges
Legal Recourse for Immigrants in the Age of Zero Tolerance