Resources

A collection of information from experts in various fields that are related to family separation and immigration.

• Immigrant Legal Resource Center

  • https://www.ilrc.org/who-we-are

    The Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC) is a national nonprofit resource center that provides immigration legal trainings, technical assistance, and educational materials, and engages in advocacy and immigrant civic engagement to advance immigrant rights.

    We Help Immigration Law Professionals and Advocates Expand Their Expertise

    The ILRC publishes expert immigration practice manuals used by legal services providers nationwide. Our unique Attorney of the Day (AOD) consultation service provides case-specific technical assistance to attorneys, nonprofit organizations, public defenders, and other immigration advocates. Our staff attorneys also conduct immigration law trainings on emerging issues, policy updates, and effective practices.

    We Educate and Train Immigrant Communities to Advocate for Themselves

    By providing education and leadership development, the ILRC helps immigrant communities and organizations advocate for improved policies, better access to services, and safer communities.

    We Shape Immigration Law and Policy

    ILRC attorneys are experts in the field of immigration law. Through our advocacy work at local, state, and federal levels, we work to ensure that policies and procedures impacting immigrant communities are fair and just.

• De-Bug

  • https://www.siliconvalleydebug.org/

    Silicon Valley De-Bug is a community organizing, advocacy, and a multimedia storytelling organization based out of San José, California. Since its’ inception in 2001, De-Bug has been a platform for Silicon Valley's diverse communities to impact the political, cultural, and social landscape of the region, while also becoming a nationally recognized model for community-based justice work.

    Storytelling

    De-Bug believes story-telling and media creation is a vehicle for individual transformation and can shape the way issues and moments are understood, conceptualized, and imagined by the larger public. To facilitate this process, De-Bug produces a bi-lingual magazine, a multimedia website, and a multitude of other media products drawing upon the creativity, analysis, and innovation of our community. And though our media products are delivered through numerous forms (such as articles, videos, books, music, art, and design) — De-Bug’s story-telling is driven by a guiding principle that those most proximate to the issue can share the most powerful, captivating, and insightful story.

    Organizing

    De-Bug believes people are stronger together than alone, and that collective action can challenge systems and institutions that oppress, while also modeling the possibility of a world that exists from our values. Our organization is part of a larger, long-standing tradition of communities of color organizing to fight for and create a society that is inclusive, liberatory, and provides an opportunity for all. De-Bug’s organizing approach is guided by the call, strategy, and vision of the lived experiences of our community. As such, we organize around criminal justice reform, immigrant rights, police accountability, racial justice, and economic justice. Our organizing and community-building work comes in many forms — all aimed at how the collective can protect, support, and lift up the aspirations of those who are part of our community. This means our organizing takes the form of direct action, healing circles, other initiatives that allow the group to support an individual's needs and ambitions. A particular community organizing initiative that was created through this approach is called “participatory defense” — a model for families and communities to impact the outcome of cases in the court system, as well as transform the landscape of power in the criminal justice system.

    Advocacy

    De-Bug’s advocacy work is an expression of our community organizing directions, and often where our story-telling work is applied. Our advocacy work comes in the form of goal-oriented campaigns aimed at making system-wide changes that can measurably change the lives of those within De-Bug as well as the larger community. Our campaigns have been local policy-setting, state legislation, and moving the national political landscape. In 2017 we are we have active campaigns in bail reform, jail reform, police accountability, housing rights, and challenging the immigration and criminal justice nexus. 2016’s campaigns and their outcomes can be found at debugsanjose.org.

• Raices

  • https://www.raicestexas.org/

    We envision a compassionate society where all people have the right to migrate and human rights are guaranteed.

    We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit agency that promotes justice by providing free and low-cost legal services to underserved immigrant children, families, and refugees. With legal services, social programs, bond assistance, and an advocacy team focused on changing the narrative around immigration in this country, RAICES is operating on the national frontlines of the fight for immigration rights.

    Current immigration policy denies entry to refugees fleeing violence, detains people in abusive detention centers, and separates parents from their children. This intentionally dehumanizing policy is being carried out by the people we elected; this policy is a reflection of us, and if we do not take action, this will become who we are. The soul of America is at stake, and RAICES is at the forefront of the fight to ensure human dignity for each and every person.

    The Children’s Program provided legal services to over 4,700 detained children, including thousands held in a tent city in Tornillo, TX.

    We’ve established the largest Bond Fund in the nation. Since June 2018, our fund has spent just under $12 million directly to secure the release of more than 1,200 individuals from ICE detention. Through our San Antonio Bus Station Project, RAICES staff and volunteers helped more than 9,000 adults and 12,000 children released from detention understand their legal rights.

    Our Volunteer Program trained over 5,000 volunteers and pro bono lawyers to perform essential tasks such as accompanying people to ICE check-ins and preparing detained clients for credible fear interviews.

• Border Angels

  • https://www.borderangels.org/

    We are a non-profit organization that is dependent on volunteers. We advocate for human rights, humane immigration reform, and social justice. This work is done in an attempt to reduce the number of fatalities along the US-Mexico border by educating and assisting the communities on both sides of the border. Services include free immigration and employee rights consultation, educational programs, water drops in the desert, day labor outreach, and Caravans of Love to Tijuana to support and aid migrants that are in need.

    Border Angels promote a culture of love through advocacy, education, by creating a social consciousness, and engaging in direct action to defend the rights of migrants and refugees.

    Established in 1986 by founder Enrique Morones, Border Angels first focused on helping migrants living in the canyons of North San Diego County. Since then, we have expanded to conducting humanitarian work along the entire US-Mexico border region.

• Refugees International

  • https://www.refugeesinternational.org/what

    Refugees International advocates for lifesaving assistance, human rights, and protection for displaced people and promotes solutions to displacement crises. We do not accept any government or UN funding, ensuring the independence and credibility of our work.

    There are currently nearly 80 million people around the world displaced by conflict, human rights abuses, and persecution, and many millions more are displaced each year by climate-related disasters. At a time when the international community’s ability to respond to these crises is stretched thin, Refugees International’s powerful advocacy helps focus planning and response to ensure that resources are going to those who need it most.

    Refugees International focuses on the important refugee, displacement, humanitarian, and human rights issues that need urgent attention and action.

    Our advocates travel to some of the world’s most severe displacement crises to investigate first-hand the challenges displaced people face, create policy solutions, and demand action.

    Refugees International does not accept government or UN funding, enabling us to speak freely and independently. This means that the humanitarian groups that respond to refugee and other displacement crises often view Refugees International as a key ally. Our expert recommendations are highly valued by senior officials of the U.S. administration and Congress, the United Nations, and governments around the world—the very people whose decisions can bring immediate relief and lifesaving solutions to refugees.

    Refugees International was started in 1979 as a citizens’ movement to protect people fleeing Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. Since then, we have expanded to become a globally focused advocacy organization, and a leading voice for the rights of displaced people worldwide.