Center for Citizenship and Immigrant Communities

Mission: The Center for Citizenship and Immigrant Communities strengthens immigrant rights community by preparing charitable immigration programs to expand their service-delivery capacity and establishing a coordinated service-delivery and legal support architecture. Through its various projects, the Center for Citizenship and Immigrant Communities seeks to develop capacity for lasting change by working with a cross-section of national and regional groups in under-served communities, (whether geographic, ethnic, or population-specific communities) to start or improve existing programs that will allow millions of immigrants throughout the United States to understand and to exercise their rights.

Projects

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Gulf Coast Immigration & Detention Project

Three years after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, the devastating effects of the storm are still visible across the region. The poor have been among the persons most affected. In particular, low-income immigrants face harsh working conditions, cannot access relevant government agencies and have legal questions regarding the loss of immigration documents. Immigrants have played, and will continue to play, an important role in revitalizing the Gulf Coast as it recovers from the massive displacement and destruction of 2005.

However, many immigrants struggle to cope with legal questions. In response, CLINIC launched its Gulf Coast Immigration Project in October 2006 with generous funding from Catholic Charities USA, the Open Society Institute, and other donors. The project supports the addition of extra immigration counselors in five affected communities: New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Lafayette in Louisiana, as well as Biloxi and Jackson, Mississippi.

CLINIC is working with lawyers, social service providers, and labor leaders on the ground to reach immigrants there and assist them with a host of immigration, housing, employment, law enforcement and detention issues. By the end of 2008, the Gulf Coast Immigration Project had:

Published an Advocate's Manual for Solving Employment Problems in Louisiana and Mississippi.
Served over 3,700 newcomers with immigration and other legal support, including naturalization, family reunification and employment authorization applications, increase Know Your Rights presentations and direct legal representation for immigrants in detention and removal proceedings.
Expanded partnerships with other advocacy organizations, law schools, and religious communities to improve government services to immigrants.

Related Resources:

ACCCA Directory of Immigrant Detention Facilities

Detention Watch Network Map

IMPORTANT INFORMATION: Immigration detention centers change rapidly and individual detainees can be moved without warning, including to a remote or out-of-state location. Call the detention center before visiting to verify that the immigrant you wish to visit is still housed there. Bring a valid government-issued ID for clearance to enter the detention center. Persons without valid immigration documents should never seek to visit a detention center, nor try to post bond for an immigration detainee.

POST-KATRINA NEWSLETTERS

NOTICES & ARTICLES

Kerwin, Donald. Two Disasters. Commonweal. May 19, 2006

Bishop DiMarzio publishes an op-ed in the Times-Picayune. It discusses the need for a national plan or policy on undocument victims of disasters.

Letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff from Bishop DiMarzio (Chair of CLINIC's Board of Directors) and Bishop Gerald Barnes (Chair of USCCB Committee on Migration).

IRS Releases:

BICE Supervision Reporting Requirements for New Orleans, 2006

IRS Notice: FEMA aid does not add to taxable income.

Immigration Management Project

CLINIC strives to meet the growing needs of new and existing charitable legal programs for low-income immigrants. It pursues these goals, in part, by training and advising local programs on good management practices through the Immigration Management Project.

The Immigration Management Project (IMP) provides training in program advocacy and fundraising skills to nonprofit immigration orgqanizations by working directly with the executive and immigration program directors. The IMP shares best practices that help local providers meet immigrants' needs.

Among other accomplishments, the IMP has:

Created and published a manual, entitled "Managing an Immigration Program: Steps for Creating and Increasing Legal Capacity" which contains training curricula based on best practices of leaders in the field of nonprofit immigration.

Facilitated the first-ever agreement among immigration law support centers to create the Immigration Advocates Network, an Internet portal for agencies that provide newcomers with immigration-related legal assistance.

Provided specialized trainings on how to obtain Board of Immigration Appeals agency recognition and staff accreditation. Significantly, 46 percent of all BIA accredited representatives belong to agencies that CLINIC has partnered with in one form or another.

For additional information on the Immigration Management Project, please contact Jeff Chenoweth at jchenoweth@cliniclegal.org or 202-635-5826.

Related Resources:

Managing an Immigration Program: Steps for Creating and Increasing Legal Capacity

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

CHAPTER 1 - Building Agency Support for an Immigration Legal Program

Sample Business Plan

CHAPTER 2 - Space, Equipment and Tools Case Management Software

Immigration Management Software

CHAPTER 3 - Staffing Your Immigration Legal Program

CHAPTER 4 - Authorization for Non-Attorneys to Practice Immigration Law (BIA Accreditation & Recognition)

CHAPTER 5 - Case Management Systems: Promoting Effective, Efficient Service Delivery

Article: Considerations for Immigration Programs Working on VAWA Self-Petitions and U Visa Cases by Gail Pendleton.

Sample Case Notes for Case File
Sample Client Agreement
Contrato De Servicis al Cliente
Sample Retainer Agreement 2 (AKA Client Service Agreement)
Sample Retainer Agreement 3
Statement of Mutual Rights & Responsibilities of Clients and Catholic Family Center
Sample Clients Right Agreement (Spanish)

CHAPTER 6 - Managing Financial Performance

Sample Immigration Budget

CHAPTER 7 - External Relations: Outreach, Marketing, Advocacy and Media

Sample Guidelines for Communications and Public Relations
Media & Communications Memorandum: What to Do and Say When You are Contacted By the Media
Sample Consent to be Interviewed bythe Media

Legalization Project

CLINIC is preparing the Catholic Church in the United States in partnership with faith-based and other pro-immigrant networks to implement a broad legalization program for the undocumented when immigration reform ultimately passes. CLINIC's Legalization Project assists charitable Catholic and non-Catholic immigration programs in building, improving and expanding their immigration legal services capacities.

Although it will likely be a number of years before Congress passes a significant immigration bill, CLINIC has already established itself as a specialist in legalization preparation.

To date, the Legalization Project has:

Released and distributed a guide for legalization preparation entitled Preparing for Legislation: A Manual for Immigration Legal Service Providers;
Hosted a Legalization and Enforcement Conference that initiated significant public education work and coordinated capacity building among virtually all of the nation’s pro-immigration networks;
Established 84 points of contact in communities across the country that can lead legalization preparedness activities in their diocese;
Produced and distributed legalization preparedness materials through email, the CLINIC website, the Catholic Legal Immigration Newsletter, trainings, and community education forums.

For additional information on the Legalization Project, please contact Jeff Chenoweth at jchenoweth@cliniclegal.org or 202-635-5826.

REPORTS

BIA Recogniton and Accreditation Overview

Toolkit for BIA Recognition and Accreditation

SSA No-Match Program and DHS No-Match Final Rule - September 2007.

CLINIC Fact Sheet: DHS Publishes Final Rule on No-Match Letters - August 2007.

Backlogs in Immigration

Preparing for Legalization: The Task at Hand

States and Localities: Immigration Legislation, Ordinances and Resolutions

Immigration Raids

PRESENTATIONS

Preparing for Legalization (for advocates)