No Immigrant Stands Alone.
We Provide Access To Counsel At All Stages In The Immigration System
ImmDef is Southern California's largest deportation defense non-profit organization. Our team provides full‐scale deportation defense, legal representation, legal education, and connections to social services to thousands of detained and non-detained adults and children in Southern California annually.
Children's Representation Project
Our program is one of the largest programs of its kind in the United States and currently provides full-scale removal defense representation services to more than 1,200 children. Through the Detained Youth Empowerment Project, each year we also provide Know Your Rights classes and legal services to over 1,000 unaccompanied children in Office of Refugee Resettlement shelters throughout the Greater Los Angeles area.
Capacity Building Initiative
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The Capacity Building Initiative houses several programs that aim to increase capacity to represent clients under ImmDef’s universal representation model, such as RepresentLA, ImmDef’s groundbreaking Spanish Language for Lawyers Program, the Jurisdictional Capacity Building Program, legal internship and fellowship programs, professional development initiatives, legal training and resources, and interpretation services.
Client Wellness
ImmDef’s Case Management Team provides non-legal holistic support to enable our clients to live with dignity while their immigration case is ongoing. Our client wellness initiative connects our clients with life-saving mental health services, emergency housing, transportation, Medi-Cal, school enrollment, food, clothing, life skills, and individualized post-release plans.
Community Defense Project
The Community Defense Project, launched in 2017, utilizes ImmDef’s unique position as a high-volume immigrant rights law firm to support the movement for a more just immigration system in our regional service area. This program works to keep communities thriving through collaborative advocacy efforts that result in county and/or city-funded affirmative and removal defense legal services in areas with a large immigrant population.
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Deported Veterans Initiative
ImmDef’s Deported Veterans Project represents United States military veterans seeking to be lawfully repatriated to the United States, the country they served. The Biden Administration has prioritized the repatriation of deported Veterans through the development of the Immigrant and Military Members and Veterans Initiative. ImmDef is working closely with the initiative to repatriate as many of those who served this country back during this window of opportunity.
Litigation & Advocacy
ImmDef launched our Litigation and Advocacy Program in 2019 with the goal of creating systemic change to dismantle the systems that seek to deport our clients and separate our families.
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.
Post-Conviction Relief
Immigrants with interactions with the criminal justice system are primary targets for immigration authorities in the United States. ImmDef is one of the only nonprofits in California with dedicated staff working to give immigrants the chance to challenge deportations based on unlawful criminal convictions.
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Welcoming Project
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. These services became an official project in response to increased instances of anti-immigrant state governments busing migrants to California.
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Nationally-Qualified Representative Program
ImmDef’s National Qualified Representative Program represents immigrants in ICE detention who are entitled to court-appointed counsel because of serious mental disorders that render them unable to represent themselves. This model of court-appointed counsel in immigration court is possible thanks to Franco-Gonzalez v. Holder, a class action lawsuit and settlement. This settlement was the first time any U.S. court ruled that a group of immigrants is entitled to government-funded legal representation.
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