MUTUAL AID

Refers callers to trusted local organizations who can support them or direct them to those who can

What It Requires

    • Ability to research and identify organizations within the local non-profit industrial complex who can provide services or who have existing relations with those who can

    • Ability to maintain relationships with organizations within the non-profit industrial complex, if only so that they will help callers

RESOURCE REFERRALS

Try to find at least one organization who has or has relationships with those who have had direct experiences as clients of attorneys or agencies. Oftentimes what one service provider will say they’ve heard about another is different from the actual experiences of clients, particularly of non-English-speakers.

Resource Referral Goals

    • Provide reliable connections to people experiencing hardship or crisis

    • Find one or two local organizations who can be the go-to source of information and connections

Potential Resource Providers include:

    • Immigrant assistance nonprofits

    • Domestic violence agencies and criminal justice survivor support groups

    • Housing counseling and support agencies (and tenant unions)

    • Defense networks like Detention Watch Network, NPNA

    • American Immigration Lawyers Association members are often more trustworthy than nonaccredited immigration lawyers

Resource

    • Immigration attorneys

    • Criminal attorneys

    • Border immigration support

    • Legal Aid and other nonprofit legal service providers

    • Financial assistance provider

    • Domestic violence or housing support agency

What Callers Often Want

    • Support with the detention (in a local jail or immigration detention) of an immediate family member

    • Support for a family member sentenced to probation or prison

    • CIS/ICE appointment: Support for a coming appointment with a federal agency

    • Assessment for legal status: whether family members qualify for a visa or other form of protection

    • Processing paperwork: Support preparing and submitting immigration forms

    • Support for an incarcerated family member or someone charged with a crime

    • Support for a family member sentenced to probation or prison

    • Support locating a loved one crossing the border

    • Support representing a loved one detained while crossing the border

    • Free legal support for a civil or criminal matter

    • Support paying for rent, legal expenses, etc.

    • Support for a loved one experiencing domestic violence or difficulty with a landlord or with loss of rental housing

Questions for Local Organizations to Ask Potential Resource Providers

    • What kinds of cases they currently accept: detained or nondetained, criminal or noncriminal

    • If they have represented someone detained pretrial in a local jail – What immigration courts they take cases within

    • How much they charge for first visits and for representation in detention cases, visa cases, etc.

    • What forms of payment and payment plans they accept – If there are criminal attorneys they often work with

    • When they have worked on dual immigration and criminal defense cases, if at all

    • If they have represented an immigrant who lacks legal status who is detained pretrial in a local jail

    • What they charge for different kinds of cases, what forms of payment and payment plans they accept

    • In what border regions do you provide support? – What support do you provide?

    • How should families get in contact with you?

    • What kinds of immigration status are excluded from receiving services, if any

    • What kinds of cases they represent or on which they provide consultation

    • What fees are charged, if any

    • What kinds of immigration status are excluded from receiving services, if any

    • What kinds of immigration status are excluded from receiving services, if any

    • When have you worked with immigrants who later qualified for U-visas or T-visas, if ever

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