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
The New York Immigrant Family Unity Project
Universal Representation for Detained Immigrants Facing Deportation in Upstate New York
In recent years, threats of arrest and detention of immigrants have soared, families have been systematically separated, and noncitizens are more vulnerable than ever to deportation. Yet immigrants facing deportation do not have the right to a public defender if they cannot afford a lawyer. The New York Immigrant Family Unity Project (NYIFUP) is ...
Series: Covid-19
Detention May Become Death Sentence for Vulnerable Detainees
Immediate action is needed to prevent the spread of this disease among other people in detention who cannot protect themselves. Even under normal circumstances, imprisoning immigrants who are in deportation proceedings is cruel. People—including those who may have legal standing to remain in the United States—languish for weeks, months, or years. ...
Blog Post
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Erica Bryant
SAFE Network
Local Leaders Keeping Families Together and Communities Safe
Related Work
Webinar: COVID-19’s Impact on Detained Immigrants
Vera’s SAFE (Safety and Fairness for Everyone) Network is a network of 18 jurisdictions committed to universal representation for immigrants facing detention and deportation. In this webinar, the SAFE Network’s Annie Chen leads a discussion with Dr. Homer Venters – a nationally recognized expert on health in correctional settings – about the height ...
How Local Leaders Can Ensure Immigrant Justice During COVID-19 Guidance Brief
Our immigration system is on the threshold of a new crisis precipitated by the COVID-19 pandemic. People in detention face high risks of infection from the close quarters of facilities, shelters, and courtrooms, and they lack adequate sanitation, health care, and protective measures. The frequent transfer of people throughout the immigration detent ...
Immigrant Justice and the COVID-19 Pandemic
Webinar: Critical Initiatives By Local Governments to Support Immigrant Communities During the COVID-19 Crisis
While local governments across the country are facing precarious economic impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic and harsh federal immigration policies continue, local leaders are providing bold leadership to stand up for immigrants in our communities. This webinar highlights how government leaders partnering with Vera are supporting their immigrant co ...
Series: Covid-19
Communities Need State and Local Deportation Defense Programs Now More Than Ever
Presently, the vast majority of people in immigration detention—70 percent—have no legal representation. This is because people facing deportation do not have the right to a public defender if they cannot afford one. And without legal representation, they face slim chances of being released from custody and remaining in the United States. With near ...
Blog Post
Melissa Garlick
Support Universal Representation: SAFE Network 101
The SAFE Network is a growing movement of communities convened by the Vera Institute of Justice that are dedicated to publicly funded, universal representation for immigrants facing detention and deportation. Universal representation advances a public defender system for people facing deportation, one in which every person facing deportation is rep ...
Series: Covid-19
Facebook Post Put High School Student in a Detention Facility Now Struck by Coronavirus
In February 2018, Hernandez, upset about a change in location for her special education program, wrote, “I’m coming tomorrow morning and I’m going to shoot all of ya bitches,” on East High School’s Facebook page. She was charged with making a terroristic threat. She pled guilty to third-degree falsely reporting an incident, a misdemeanor offense, a ...
Blog Post
Erica Bryant
Series: Covid-19
Unaccompanied Children Suffer as Hearings are Sped Up, Switched to Video During COVID-19 Crisis
Video teleconference (VTC) hearings allow unaccompanied children to participate in court proceedings without physically appearing in court. The children answer questions from a judge on a screen, who might be translated by an interpreter in a third location. Such hearings are commonplace in adult immigration proceedings, despite concerns about thei ...
Blog Post
Erica Bryant
COVID-19
Criminal Justice Responses to the Coronavirus Pandemic
America has become a global epicenter in the COVID-19 pandemic, and some of the country’s most vulnerable people are in jails, prisons, and detention centers—places where they are at extreme risk of infection and have no ability to protect themselves. This moment highlights the vital need to shift away from punitive practices that funnel people int ...
Series: Target 2020
Responding to COVID-19: Focusing on People in the Criminal Justice and Immigration Systems
People who are incarcerated at the following facilities have already tested positive: the Rikers Island jail complex and the Metropolitan Detention Center in New York City; the Nassau County Correctional Center in East Meadow, New York; the Larimer County Community Corrections program in Fort Collins, Colorado; the Massachusetts Treatment Center in ...
Blog Post
Logan Schmidt
Facing Deportation: My Story About the Promise of Having a Lawyer in Immigration Court
My story is proof that programs like the New York Immigrant Family Unity Project (NYIFUP) matter, because people like me need legal representation when fighting deportation. Though I was born in Jamaica, the United States has been my home for most of my life. I arrived in the United States 30 years ago as a teenager with a green card. I came to thi ...
Announcing New Grants for Community Groups Working Toward Universal Representation for Immigrants
Vera’s Safety and Fairness for Everyone (SAFE) Network last week announced an inaugural request for proposals for community-based organizations in SAFE jurisdictions to further elevate and increase capacity for such grassroots organizing and advocacy for universal representation programs. Immigrants remain under unprecedented attacks by our federal ...
Blog Post
Melissa Garlick