Working with Survivors at Risk of Removal

This section contains resources for immigration attorneys, practitioners, advocates, community organizers, and anyone working with immigrant survivors at risk of removal. You can find useful information translated in several languages to assist immigrant survivors with their rights in this country.

Federal Court Litigation

Webinar presented by: Maria Baldini-Potermin, Maria Baldini-Potermin & Associates, P.C.; Cecelia Friedman-Levin, ASISTA; Geoffrey Hoffman, University of Houston Law Center Immigration Clinic & Gail Pendleton, ASISTA.

Please contact questions@asistahelp.org to access the sample mandamus. 

Many thanks to Celso Perez and Kurzban, Kurzban, Weinger, Tetzeli & Pratt for crafting the brief for us, to Julie Carpenter of Tahirih Justice Center and our other core group drafters, and to all the organizations that signed on. Click here to download the Amicus Brief on Bona Fide EAD for U Applicants in Word version.

System Advocacy

Federal investigations and prosecutions, definitions, and organizing best practices.

Investigaciones y prosecuciones federales, definiciones y practicas recomendadas para la organización política.

Webinar Presentations & Recordings: Survivor's Safety

Panelists: Audrey Carr, Director of Immigration and Special Programs, Legal Services, NYC; Cecelia Friedman Levin, Senior Policy Counsel, ASISTA; Mona Patel-Sikora, Directing Attorney, Immigration Center for Women & Children, and Gail Pendleton, Executive Director, ASISTA.

Webinar presented by Cecelia Friedman Levin, ASISTA Senior Policy Counsel; and Gail Pendleton, ASISTA Executive Director.

Webinar presented by Grace Huang, Asian Pacific Institute on Gender-Based Violence; Rosie Hidalgo, Casa de Esperanza: National Latin@ Network; Leslye Orloff, National Immigrant Women’s Advocacy Project; Archi Pyati, Tahirih Justice Center; and Cecelia Friedman Levin, ASISTA. Click here to access the Webinar Recording

Webinario en espanol presentado por Rosie Hidalgo, Casa de Esperanza; Sonia Parras Konrad, ASISTA y Rocio Molina, Proyecto Nacional por la Defensa de las Mujeres Inmigrantes.

This webinar series is for attorneys, accredited representatives, domestic and sexual violence advocates, mental health service providers and social workers already familiar with VAWA andU visas to help women and children released from family detention centers. Specifically, it is designed to expand your knowledge and capacity to help survivors fleeing domestic and sexual violence in their home countries apply for asylum.

Federal Court Advocacy

Proposed Brief for Tahirih Justice Center at al. Amicus Curiae in Support of Plaintiff's Motion for Preliminary Injunctions.

General Safety Planning Resources

Appleseed deportation manual is a comprehensive resource designed for immigrants and service providers to develop plans related to financial and family issues in the event of deportation, arrest and other family emergencies. ASISTA and Asian Pacific Institute on Gender-Based Violence (API-GBV) are proud to author the chapter on Domestic Violence issues.

ILRC Red Cards contain basic rights and protections under US Constitution.

Immigrant Legal Resource Center has several community resources regarding immigration rights and protections.

Know Your Rights Materials

ACLU Know Your Rights Videos: Available in English,
Arabic, Farsi, Spanish, and Urdu.

Catholic Legal Immigration Network Inc. has extensive KYR materials available including comprehensive guides, one-pagers, and powerpoint presentations. Know Your Rights: A Guide to Know Your Rights when Interacting with Law Enforcement available in English, Spanish, Amharic, Chinese, and in other languages.

CLINIC Know Your Rights Quick Guides: Available in English, Spanish, Chinese, and Amharic.

ICWC thanks the National Immigration Law Center (www.NILC.org) for compiling and providing this information. ICWC has add specific information for its clients.

ICWC thanks the National Immigration Law Center (www.NILC.org) for compiling and providing this information. ICWC has add specific information for its clients.

Know Your Rights and What Families Should Do Now is a brief advisory about the rights everyone has in the U.S.

Evidentiary Protections & Confidentiality

This instruction applies throughout DHS, particularly those employees who work with applicants for victim-based immigration relief or who have access to protected information, such as United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

This ICE memo provides interim guidance concerning the expanded confidentiality protections of the VAWA 2005 and the legislation's requirements that ICE issue a certificate of compliance in certain circumstances.

Other Useful Resources

The Women’s Refugee Commission published a toolkit for parents in 2014 that provides guidance on the following: Protecting parental rights when detained or deported; Making care arrangements for children; Determining if a child is in the child welfare system and participating in that system; Complying with a child welfare ordered reunification plan, Participating in family court proceedings; Reunifying with children following release from detention or deportation; Contact information for state child welfare agencies in all 50 states, Links to state-specific handbooks for parents with children in the child welfare system; Guidance on how to request appointed counsel in family court; List of states that provide court-appointed lawyers in family court, Instructions on applying for U.S. passports from detention; Contact information for adoption reunion registries; Contact information for child welfare agencies in Mexico and Central America.

ASISTA Stop Workplace Sexual Violence Main Guide: Assisting Immigrant Survivors of Workplace Sexual Violence: A guide for advocates, organizers, and leaders to advance immigrant women's gender equality rights in the workplace (2016)

This project was supported by a Grant No. 2009-TA-AX-K009 awarded by the United States Department of Justice, Office of Violence Against Women. The opinions, findings, and recommendations expressed in this document are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women.

FRONTLINE and Univision partner to tell the story of the hidden price many migrant women working in America’s fields and packing plants pay to stay employed and provide for their families. This investigation is the result of a yearlong reporting effort by veteran FRONTLINE correspondent Lowell Bergman, the Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley, and the Center for Investigative Reporting.