Immigrant Justice Corps
Project Title
For general support
Date
Jun. 03, 2021
Duration
12 months
Description
Data shows that immigrants have up to a 74 percent chance of winning their immigration cases with legal representation. Unfortunately, without access to quality counsel, many immigrants fall victim to fraudulent legal practitioners or do not address their legal status at all. Founded in 2014 by Judge Robert Katzmann of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, the Immigrant Justice Center (IJC) uses an innovative fellowship program to train new lawyers and expand access to affordable immigration legal services for underserved communities. IJC recruits talented new lawyers and advocates from across the country and provides fellowships that connect them with legal service agencies and community-based organizations in need of legal capacity. IJC has onboarded 278 lawyers and advocates and supported more than 80,000 immigrants and their families with legal information, advice, and high-quality representation, often in the clients’ native language. With Corporation support, IJC will continue to recruit, train, and support young lawyers and community advocates to provide legal and social services to underserved immigrants across the country.
Website
Project Title
For general support
Date
Jun. 13, 2019
Duration
24 months
Description
Although there is substantial evidence that helping immigrants gain legal status improves their economic prospects and increases overall community prosperity and public safety, immigrant families in the United States struggle to obtain quality legal services. Approximately 829,000 cases are pending in overwhelmed immigration courts nationwide, and a vast majority of them lack legal counsel. With a lawyer, an immigrant is six times more likely to win their case. Unfortunately, 47 percent of lawyers appearing in immigration courts are deemed “inadequate” or “grossly inadequate” by judges. Founded in 2014 by Chief Judge Robert Katzmann of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, the Immigrant Justice Corps (IJC) helps vulnerable immigrants gain access to affordable, high-quality immigration legal services through an innovative fellowship program. With Corporation support, IJC will continue to train and support exceptional young lawyers and college graduates to provide legal and social services to immigrants at top legal services agencies and community-based organizations across the country.
Website
Project Title
For general support
Date
Jun. 01, 2017
Duration
24 months
Description
Studies show that non-detained immigrants with a lawyer have a 74 percent chance of winning their case. Detained immigrants who represent themselves, on the other hand, have a 3 percent chance of winning their case. Less than one percent of New York City’s 75,000 lawyers practice immigration law for low-income clients and less than 200 accredited non-lawyer representatives can help meet the need. As a result, nonprofit legal service providers – regarded by immigration judges as the highest-quality providers – can handle only a fraction of the immigration defense cases at the New York City Immigration Court. In the counties surrounding NYC, where as many undocumented immigrants need legal help as in the city itself, nonprofit immigration attorneys number only in the dozens. Using an innovative fellowship model, Immigrant Justice Corps (IJC) has been helping immigrants and their families gain access to critical legal information and high-quality representation in NYC, and with Corporation support, IJC will expand to areas outside NYC, including Long Island, upstate New York, and other communities.
Website
Project Title
For general support
Date
Jun. 04, 2015
Duration
18 months