Immigration strategies

Special collection

Every day, organizations worldwide are engaged in a collective two steps forward, one step back march toward improved immigration services and policies. What hard-earned lessons are these nonprofits, and the foundations that support them, learning from their persistent efforts? This collection of evaluations, case studies, and lessons learned exposes and explores the nuances of effective collaboration, the value of coordinated messaging, the bedrock of ongoing advocacy efforts, and the vital importance of long-term and flexible funding.

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"Immigration"" by Paul_the_Seeker is licensed under CC 2.0

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"You Suffer a Lot": Immigrants with Disabilities Face Barriers in Immigration Court

July 19, 2023

Immigrants with disabilities face many barriers as they navigate deportation proceedings in U.S. immigration courts, where they must gather and submit evidence, testify, and present their case, often without a lawyer. These proceedings are adversarial, confusing, and terrifying for many immigrants, particularly people facing deportation to persecution or torture. As detailed in this report, the barriers that disabled immigrants face are exacerbated by a lack of resources and information about immigrants' rights under disability law in immigration court proceedings, absence of an established protocol for exercising those rights, denials of reasonable accommodations and safeguards to meaningfully participate in their proceedings, the use of detention to jail people during their immigration court cases, and disability discrimination in immigration court, including bias, stigma, and hostility from immigration judges. These barriers and harms violate federal disability law, Constitutional due process protections, and immigration law.

Litigation/Legal Services

Immigration Enforcement Policies and Detainer Trends in SJC Sites

May 23, 2023

Immigration status impacts the way people, especially people who are Latino/a, experience local justice systems—from arrest and detention to data sharing with immigration officials. And a Safety and Justice Challenge (SJC) report on immigration enforcement policies and trends of detention shows the landscape differs widely between communities. Even among SJC cities and counites, some jurisdictions limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, others may only share data or only detain people for immigration and customs enforcement, and others cooperate across many dimensions of the system. The report includes recommendations for communities committed to reducing the overuse of jails including limiting data sharing and outsourcing of jail beds and identifying the ways immigration policies affect their systems.

Litigation/Legal Services

What the Border Looked Like in FY2022

May 4, 2023

The release of fiscal year 2022 border data was again marked by headlines touting a record-breaking year for encounters. In the following issue brief, we delve into the border data further, analyzing the migration patterns and trends that occurred in FY2022, how Title 8 was used at the border in FY2022, how trends at the northern border and at sea changed this fiscal year, and what process changes were implemented at the border.

Litigation/Legal Services; Research & Evaluation

Immigration Backlogs and Congressional Funding

October 6, 2022

Immigration backlogs are affecting a wide range of immigrants — asylum seekers, DACA recipients, spouses of U.S. citizens, and high-skilled immigrants in the tech industry, to name a few. Backlogs have become a systemic issue within the immigration enterprise, which we define as the five departments that address immigration through appropriations: the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Department of Justice, the Department of Labor, and the Department of State (DOS). As each department attempts to tackle its segment of crisis, Congress could help address it by providing additional funding to clear backlogs and alleviate pressure on the system.

Capital & Infrastructure; Litigation/Legal Services

Immigration Legal Services in California: A Time for Bold Action (2022 Update)

May 6, 2022

Recognizing the intensifying legal service needs of immigrant communities and legal service providers, GCIR and the California Immigrant Integration Initiative (CIII) launched a study in 2019 to understand the capacity of immigration legal services in California and generate recommendations for strategic philanthropic investment. This 2022 update is a supplement to the 2019-20 findings and recommendations and offers recommendations to strengthen immigration legal services in California for immigrants and asylum seekers. The report draws from 20 interviews with executive-level staff from legal service organizations and 80 responses to an online survey of a broad range of immigration legal service providers across the state.

Litigation/Legal Services

Immigration Law Intersections with Case Law in Nebraska: A Snapshot of Nebraska Supreme Court Cases

March 9, 2022

This report from the ACLU of Nebraska is a resource for attorneys and advocates who work on behalf of Nebraska's immigrant communities. It explains influential Nebraska Supreme Court cases and their effects on immigrants' daily lives, rights to state benefits, and rights in the civil and criminal court systems.

Litigation/Legal Services

The Dream Act: An Overview

March 16, 2021

The Dream Act would permanently protect certain immigrants who came to the United States as children but are vulnerable to deportation. This fact sheet provides an overview of the most recent version of the Dream Act and similar legislative proposals.

Children; Litigation/Legal Services

Using Volunteers in Naturalization Workshops

September 6, 2014

Volunteers are a critical component of efficient naturalization service delivery, especially in group processing workshops, which the New Americans Campaign (NAC) promotes. This toolkit provides recommendations for organizations on how to recruit, train, retain, and effectively use volunteers at group processing workshops.

Civic Engagement; Community-Based Outreach & Activity; Litigation/Legal Services

Characteristics of a Successful Site Leader

September 6, 2014

The New Americans Campaign is proud to announce a new toolkit on Characteristics of Successful Site Leaders. The NAC's unique structure uses site leaders to lead the campaign in each community. This toolkit illuminates the characteristics of a successful site leader, so that collaborations can appropriately choose which organization, and which person within that organization, should serve as the local site leader.

Litigation/Legal Services; Staff & Leadership Development

Prescreening and Red Flag Review: A toolkit in the Group Processing Workshop Series

September 6, 2014

The New Americans Campaign provides a significant percentage of naturalization services through group processing workshops -- events serving 10-600+ lawful permanent residents (LPRs) within a single day. This group approach is critical to the Campaign's goal of significantly increasing the number of LPRs who complete their naturalization applications. It also serves as a foundation for other immigration service delivery, including future opportunities arising out of Comprehensive Immigration Reform. This toolkit provides recommendations for organizations on how to screen LPRs before a workshop for their eligibility to naturalize, as well as how to review the suitability of their case for assistance in a workshop setting.

Civic Engagement; Litigation/Legal Services

Opening Doors to Citizenship (Summary)

August 12, 2014

The New Americans Campaign (the Campaign) was formed in 2011 by a group of funders and national partners, including the Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC), to increase the number of eligible lawful permanent residents (LPRs) who apply to become United States citizens. The Campaign, led by the ILRC, draws together a national network of legal service providers, communityand faith-based organizations, foundations and other allies in the public and private sectors. In 2012, the Campaign commissioned Harder+Company Community Research to evaluate whether and how the original eight Campaign sites had increased naturalization rates. The evaluation found that the campaign efforts at these sites had produced increased numbers of completed applications, in large part because of beneficial collaboration, use of innovative approaches, and dynamic learning and support between national and local work.

Coalition Building & Collaboration; Litigation/Legal Services; Research & Evaluation

Evaluation of EPIM III: Emerging Insights From the Evaluation So Far

January 1, 2014

This report sets out some emerging insights from the ongoing evaluation of the European Programme for Integration and Migration (EPIM) 2012-2015 programme. The activities of EPIM and this evaluation lie at the very heart of EPIM's efforts to strengthen the capacity of NGOs active in migration and integration issues, to engage with and influence decision-making at EU and Member state levels, and to do so by drawing on a rigorous evidence base, and through a pragmatic approach. Founded in 2005 as an activity of the Network of European Foundations (NEF) in a unique effort to fund European migration and integration organisations, EPIM's activities include strategic grant-making as well as networking, capacity-building, supporting advocacy and policy work. The Programme has now disbursed over €3m to more than 24 grantee organisations. Drawing on experience and learning from previous phases, EPIM's current three core areas of focus are asylum seekers, undocumented migrants, and equality, integration and social inclusion of vulnerable migrants. Recognising the importance of the role played by civil society, one of EPIM's key goals is to strengthen the advocacy capacities of NGOs at the European level. This goal reflects the fact that over the past decade the EU has become an important actor in the field of immigration and asylum, as well as that the majority of countries face some challenges in this area.

Advocacy; Coalition Building & Collaboration; Communications & Media; Litigation/Legal Services