Center for Immigrant Rights

Mission: The Center for Immigrant Rights tackles problems faced by low-income immigrants and CLINIC member agencies that can only be resolved through advocacy, education, pro bono representation, litigation, and media. The Center identifies legal trends and issues affecting immigrants and pursues responsive solutions. The Center prioritizes its advocacy agenda in concert with its member agencies. It also collaborates with Migration and Refugee Services of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). At the national level, the Center for Immigrant Rights focuses on administrative advocacy with officials at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR). At the local level, the Center supports the efforts of advocates working to combat state and local anti-immigrant measures. To increase representation to detained immigrants, the Center coordinates the Board of Immigration Appeals Pro Bono Project. Because documentation and media coverage of the human impact of U.S. immigration polices are crucial to advocacy efforts that seek to create a more just immigration system, the Center documents and facilitates media coverage of the challenges facing immigrants served by its network. It also provides support to its member and colleague agencies engaged in media outreach.
Projects
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attorneys and law school clinics to provide pro bono legal representation to indigent immigrants. Through a network of committed volunteers, trainers, and mentors, the BIA Project facilitates access to justice, a critical component to safeguarding the rights of vulnerable asylum-seekers and long time lawful permanent residents. Since the Project’s inception in 2001, it has secured representation for more than 550 individuals. The Project regularly surfaces cases that result in significant decisions, including favorable, published BIA decisions, as well as Federal and Supreme Court decision. In a published study, the Department of Justice found that immigrants who had been provided representation through the Project were up to four times more likely to win a favorable decision before the BIA. For more information contact CLINIC staff attorney Ann Atalla at aatalla@cliniclegal.org.