Building an immigration legal program - NNAAC

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The Catholic Legal Immigration Network, CLINIC (www.cliniclegal.org) offers approximately 40 trainings throughout the year and all over the country on a wide range of immigration legal issues of interest to nonprofits, including a Survey of Immigration Law, Family-Based Immigration, Naturalization and Citizenship, Crimes and Removal Proceedings, Immigration Legal Skills, Immigration Program Management, and others. The Immigrant Legal Resource Center, ILRC (www.ilrc.org) has developed a rigorous week-long training curriculum that covers much of the immigration law of interest to nonprofits. Different organizations offer it several times throughout the year in different locations. Check ILRC’s website for this year’s schedule. ILRC itself also offers shorter immigration law trainings in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Several state immigration coalitions offer regular immigration training: � New York Immigration Coalition www.thenyic.org � Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition www.miracoalition.org � Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights www.icirr.org Webinars Many organizations are increasingly using “webinars” to offer immigration training. “Webinars” are training sessions that take place via conference call and computer; each participant logs on to a designated site to view the presentation, and then calls in to a conference call to hear the presenter(s) speak. Or one can access webinars that are archived on an organization’s website. This last suggestion is very helpful for an agency that is starting up or has hired staff who are without an immigration law and management background. The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), CLINIC, Church World Service, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, and World Relief are among the organizations that currently offer immigration webinars. CLINIC offers many webinars throughout the year. Webinars can be an excellent way to keep up on developments in immigration law and build on your knowledge base. They are much less expensive than in-person trainings. However, they are generally fairly short, and cannot match the in-depth experience of in-person trainings. They are best viewed as an excellent complement to in-person trainings. For an agency operating on a shoe-string or in a remote location, the growing number of live and archived webinars provides a similar curriculum to in-person trainings. The central resource for a national perspective on where and when to get in-person and webinar (live and archived) immigration law and management trainings is the Immigration Advocates Network website calendar page: http://www.immigrationadvocates.org/calendar/ Mentoring Working under the supervision of an experienced practitioner can be an excellent way to learn immigration law. Some organizations set up mentoring relationships with experienced attorneys or accredited representatives outside their own organizations. This might take the form of “job shadowing” —observing the mentor’s work for a certain period of time. It also might involve the mentor closely overseeing the work of the mentee. Training in Non-Legal Areas It is critically important to ensure that your staff is well trained in immigration law and procedure. Their immigration work may be enhanced by training in non-legal areas such as computer skills and public speaking. 44 A MANUAL BY CATHOLIC LEGAL IMMIGRATION NETWORK, INC.
Volunteers Volunteers can greatly expand your program’s capacity. Some volunteers may be able to do legal work, while others can perform tasks that can free up time for legal staff to concentrate on legal work. Volunteers may be interpreters, law students, non-law students, pro bono attorneys, someone who is active in a faith community, or other people who want to help immigrants. Using volunteers is also a way to raise your agency’s profile in the community; attract new funding; and raise awareness of immigrants and immigration law issues in your community. Training You will need to make sure that any volunteers you use are sufficiently trained for the tasks you are asking them to perform. Initial and on-going training is a key to volunteer management, nurturing, and retention. Training programs should be welltailored to help volunteers understand how to perform the tasks they have chosen. In addition to skill-specific trainings, the organization should also provide other trainings calculated to expand volunteer capacity, for example, leadership development and advocacy on relevant issues. In the area of legal services, volunteers must be trained and the training kept updated on the issue of confidentiality and unauthorized practice of law. Confidentiality Volunteers MUST understand the importance of confidentiality in your work. Some programs use a specific volunteer agreement that stresses the necessity of keeping client information confidential. See attached National Immigrant Justice Center “Sample Volunteer Agreement” and “Volunteer Confidentiality Agreement” on pages 58 and 59. However you choose to educate your volunteers about confidentiality, this agreement provides useful guidance about what to tell your volunteers about confidentiality. Respect and Consideration for Volunteers People choose to volunteer their free time and efforts for many reasons, but their first priorities are their own life, family, and work. An organization that uses volunteers must be sensitive to and supportive of volunteers’ time and other limitations. The organization can help to make volunteering easy by carefully planning how to use the volunteers. Breaking down tasks into small, discrete units helps volunteers fit the chosen activities into their existing schedule. It is a good idea to have a key organizer who can coordinate and oversee the details of all tasks and assignments to ensure that all necessary tasks are done. In addition, organizers should also make sure to include back-up and redundancy where possible. A task that may be completed by one person may be assigned to two people who may attempt to perform that task together or agree to take turns. Retaining Volunteers For volunteers to return, they must feel convinced that they are making a difference, that they are doing something that needs to be done, and that they are valued. Some suggestions on how to retain volunteers: � Good organization: create a plan on how to use volunteers effectively and coordinate well to ensure that the plan is carried out. This helps ensure that volunteers are doing something that fits into the big picture. � Good backup plans: the organizer(s) or coordinator(s) must be prepared and flexible. There will be occasions on which volunteers cannot come or perform the necessary tasks, or those on which more volunteers show up than expected. Organizers or coordinators must be quick on their feet and able to adjust to the unexpected. � Good communication: the organizer(s) or coordinator(s) should make a point of informing volunteers of the agency’s progress or achievement on the project they have worked on. E-mail updates or newsletters are quick and easy ways to keep people informed and connected. Managing an Immigration Program: Steps for Creating & Increasing Legal Capacity 45
Page 1 and 2: TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 2
Page 3 and 4: Copyright © April 2010, Catholic L
Page 5 and 6: Chapter Five, “Case Management,
Page 7 and 8: If you are considering starting a n
Page 9 and 10: � Technical legal support If you
Page 11 and 12: � Absolute commitment to the miss
Page 13 and 14: ATTACHMENT Sample Business Plan Bac
Page 15 and 16: Market Strategy A marketing plan ne
Page 17 and 18: Immigration Attorneys: Jennifer Gui
Page 19 and 20: Church World Service R&P Amount: $X
Page 21 and 22: CHAPTER TWO Space, Equipment, and T
Page 23 and 24: Locked Safe for Filing Fees You sho
Page 25 and 26: Software vs. Internet-Based There a
Page 27 and 28: Encourage your staff to make freque
Page 29 and 30: Employees and members of the board
Page 31 and 32: ATTACHMENT Immigration Case Managem
Page 33 and 34: In order to practice immigration la
Page 35 and 36: Hiring and Retraining Consideration
Page 37 and 38: Our Criteria for Choosing Staff to
Page 39 and 40: No Moonlighting: Ensuring That Your
Page 41 and 42: immigration services, you might con
Page 43: Supervision Challenges in an Agency
Page 47 and 48: � The interpreter should not summ
Page 49 and 50: ATTACHMENT Sample Volunteer Agreeme
Page 51 and 52: ATTACHMENT Sample Policy Prohibitio
Page 53 and 54: CHAPTER FOUR Authorization for Non-
Page 55 and 56: Recognition and Accreditation by th
Page 57 and 58: locations. Separate recognition is
Page 59 and 60: The BIA requires that a recognized
Page 61 and 62: Full Accreditation Full accreditati
Page 63 and 64: Certificates of Service on USCIS an
Page 65 and 66: ATTACHMENT The following documents
Page 67 and 68: The IAC will offer immigration lega
Page 69 and 70: SAMPLE B [Letterhead] February 5, 2
Page 71 and 72: EOIR-31 (April, 2009 Version includ
Page 73 and 74: Foundation Center, www.foundationce
Page 75 and 76: Immigrant Legal Resource Center (IL
Page 77 and 78: SAMPLE D Fee Schedule This fee sche
Page 79 and 80: SAMPLE F RELEVANT EXPERIENCE Résum
Page 81 and 82: SAMPLE G Letter of Recommendation f
Page 83 and 84: SAMPLE H [ON LAW FIRM LETTERHEAD] M
Page 85 and 86: CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE I, [Name of
Page 87 and 88: cases, from the moment a potential
Page 89 and 90: The ethics rules that most directly
Page 91 and 92: Smaller Agency: Designated Intake T
Page 93 and 94: Balancing Staff Time “We struggle
Page 95 and 96:
To supplement the immigration appli
Page 97 and 98:
Indeed, as the above sections indic
Page 99 and 100:
epresentation at the interview? May
Page 101 and 102:
Because it delineates the specific
Page 103 and 104:
Filing Systems File Organization In
Page 105 and 106:
which completed or otherwise termin
Page 107 and 108:
Mail to Government Agencies Program
Page 109 and 110:
Perspectives on COA COA Leads to Be
Page 111 and 112:
most common problem in cases requir
Page 113 and 114:
ATTACHMENT Sample Case Notes for Ca
Page 115 and 116:
IV. TERMINATION OF REPRESENTATION A
Page 117 and 118:
Immigration Legal Services, Jeanne
Page 119 and 120:
Race: (Check one) Current Immigrati
Page 121 and 122:
List every place where you have wor
Page 123 and 124:
If your spouse is a U.S. citizen, d
Page 125 and 126:
QuickBooks offers a line of afforda
Page 127 and 128:
Setting Fees See “Funding the Pro
Page 129 and 130:
files until the applications are ma
Page 131 and 132:
Ideally a certified public accounti
Page 133 and 134:
Foundations For the past five years
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Fee Income Some programs have a mis
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Interest on Lawyer’s Trust Accoun
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program for a limited amount of tim
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Chapter Seven Building Program Visi
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How to Forge Long-Term Relationship
Page 145 and 146:
Online Collaborative Tools If you a
Page 147 and 148:
Be careful, however, when bringing
Page 149 and 150:
Also, The Strategic Communications
Page 151 and 152:
Chapter Seven Building Program Visi
Page 153 and 154:
When Case Advocacy Becomes Policy A
Page 155 and 156:
ATTACHMENT Sample Media and Communi
Page 157 and 158:
MEDIA CHECKLIST 1. Why is the case/
Page 159:
ATTACHMENT Sample Outgoing Contact
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