No Immigrant Stands Alone.
We Provide Access To Counsel At All Stages In The Immigration System
Immigrant Defenders Law Center (ImmDef) is Southern California’s largest nonprofit focused exclusively on deportation defense. Our expert immigration attorneys provide free, full‑scale legal representation, community legal education, and essential social service referrals to thousands of immigrants—both adults and children—detained and non‑detained. Serving Ventura, Kern, Santa Barbara, San Bernardino, Riverside, Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego counties, ImmDef stands at the forefront of immigrant rights advocacy. With a deep commitment to justice, equity, and due process, we empower vulnerable communities facing deportation with the tools, resources, and legal counsel they need to defend their future.
ImmDef operates one of the nation’s largest removal defense programs, providing free full‑scale immigration representation to more than 1,200 immigrant children facing deportation. Through the Detained Youth Empowerment Project, ImmDef delivers annual Know Your Rights trainings and critical legal services to over 1,000 unaccompanied minors housed in Office of Refugee Resettlement shelters across Greater Los Angeles.
With specialized youth‑focused advocacy, ImmDef ensures vulnerable children receive the protection, education, and legal support they deserve. By combining expert immigration defense with community empowerment, ImmDef stands as a leading voice for immigrant children’s rights nationwide.
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The Capacity Building Initiative encompasses a wide range of programs designed to expand the ability to represent clients under ImmDef’s universal representation model. These include RepresentLA, ImmDef’s pioneering Spanish Language for Lawyers Program, the Jurisdictional Capacity Building Program, legal internship and fellowship opportunities, professional development initiatives, comprehensive legal training and resources, and interpretation services.
ImmDef’s Case Management Team delivers holistic, non-legal support to help immigrant clients maintain dignity and stability throughout their immigration proceedings. Through our Client Wellness Initiative, we connect individuals and families to life-saving resources—including mental health care, emergency housing, transportation, Medi-Cal enrollment, school access, food assistance, clothing, life skills training, and personalized post-release plans. This wraparound support ensures our clients are empowered, cared for, and equipped to navigate the challenges of the immigration system.
In 2017, ImmDef launched its Locally Funded Initiatives with support from the County and City of Los Angeles, the City of Santa Ana, and later the City of Long Beach—creating a powerful safety net for immigrant communities facing deportation and ICE detention. These initiatives provide critical legal defense and advocacy, empowering local governments to stand up for due process and protect vulnerable residents from aggressive immigration enforcement. ImmDef’s Locally Funded Initiatives are a model for community-driven resistance and justice.
Cross-Border Initiative
The Cross-Border Initiative confronts the humanitarian crisis at the U.S.–Mexico border with unwavering commitment to protecting migrant children and families. Our immigration attorneys and advocates provide urgent legal support to individuals facing life‑threatening medical emergencies, violence, and extreme danger.
By challenging systemic cruelty and injustice, ImmDef ensures vulnerable migrants receive the protection, care, and legal representation they need to survive and thrive. This initiative highlights ImmDef’s role as a frontline defender of immigrant rights, delivering justice and dignity at one of the nation’s most critical borders.
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Deported Veterans Initiative
ImmDef one of the nation’s only nonprofit law organizations focused exclusively on specialized deportation defense for deported U.S. military veterans. At a time when immigration legal services for veterans in exile are critically scarce nationwide, ImmDef provides expert legal representation in post‑conviction relief, complex immigration cases, and veteran deportation defense. This program aims to restore dignity, legal status, and rightful recognition to immigrant veterans who served the United States, ensuring that no veteran is abandoned at the border.
ImmDef leads a powerful impact litigation and legal advocacy strategy, advancing key immigration cases in both federal and immigration courts—from initial filings through appellate review. In response to heightened federal enforcement, ImmDef intensified its efforts, positioning itself as a frontline defender of immigrant rights from all angles.
We stand firm in our commitment to inclusivity, due process, and justice for all. Our project specifically focuses on issues related to access to counsel, detention conditions and ending immigration detention, violation of rights of unaccompanied minors, cruel and inhumane treatment of asylum seekers and systemic violations of due process rights.
Immigrants who have had past involvement with the criminal justice system often carry the weight of double punishment—first through the courts, and then through the harsh lens of immigration enforcement. They face aggressive targeting and the threat of deportation rooted in convictions that may be unlawful or unjust. We recognize the human stories behind these cases. Through post‑conviction relief and strategic advocacy, we fight not only to challenge deportations but to uphold dignity, protect families, and ensure that every immigrant’s right to due process is honored.
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ImmDef’s National Qualified Representative Program (NQRP) provides immigration legal representation to detained immigrants who have serious mental disabilities that significantly affect their ability to understand or participate in their immigration proceedings. Under federal law, these individuals are entitled to court‑appointed counsel because their disabilities make it impossible for them to represent themselves.
This government‑funded model of legal support in immigration court was created as a result of the Franco‑Gonzalez v. Holder class action lawsuit and settlement—the first case in U.S. history in which a court recognized a group of immigrants’ right to government‑funded legal representation in immigration proceedings.
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In 2024, ImmDef launched the Rapid Response Program to proactively prepare for and address local ICE enforcement actions and raid tactics. Our team of experienced immigration attorneys delivers urgent, trauma‑informed legal support to community members affected by heightened ICE activity. ImmDef serves as a core member of the Los Angeles Rapid Response Network (LARRN) and works closely with partner networks across Central California, Orange County, San Diego, and the Inland Empire.
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The Welcoming Project began in 2023 with the goal of providing a holistic and dignified welcome for noncitizens living or arriving in Southern California with a focus on the greater Los Angeles area. We believe that no migrant should stand alone when arriving at a new home. This program helps migrants navigate the immigration system and understand their rights as migrants while settling into a new community.
Support your neighbors, provide legal representation to keep communities together.