1. Working with Immigrant Communities in Your CCR
Gail Pendleton, Executive Director, ASISTA Immigration Assistance
Michael LaRiviere, Salem MA Police Department
Homero Lopez, Managing Attorney, Catholic Charities – Archdiocese of New Orleans

2. Goals As a result of this workshop you will be better able to
Develop and improve your responses and work with immigrant survivors
Identify and explore promising practices for law enforcement, prosecutors, and advocates working with immigrant communities
What can you do?
Who do you need to work?
How can you more effectively reach and work safely with immigrant survivors?

3. Who are your communities?
Who are you already working with?
Who is not accessing your services?
Are immigrant CBOs involved in your CCR?
Are immigration lawyers in your CCR?

4. Quick check-in: May Immigrant Survivors. . .
Help hold perpetrators accountable?
Extra credit: If yes, how?
Seek child custody and support in civil court?
Extra credit: What do Constitution and Supreme Court say about who can access our courts?
Obtain community based services?
Extra credit: What is “necessary to protect life and safety”?
Does this apply to you and/or your CCR participants?

5. Immigration Q & A Is being undocumented a crime?
Extra credit: Which undocumented immigrants have NOT committed a crime?
Can an undocumented person apply to work legally?
Extra credit: What is necessary to get legal work authorization?
Can undocumented immigrants apply directly to be US citizens?
Extra credit: What does someone have to have first?
Can undocumented survivors apply directly for a green card?
Extra credit: What immigration options are available to survivors?

6. Immigrant Survivor Realities
What may be stopping immigrant survivors from accessing safety and justice?

7. How can you help overcome
Language & accessibility
Information/misinformation
Potential for deportation/removal
Experience in the home country
Economic barriers
Cultural and religious pressure

8. What Congress Has Done Access to public benefits
Access to legal services
Access to services (LEP)
Special routes to immigration status

9. Congress created these special options
Special Immigrant Juveniles
Conditional Residence Waiver (for those with green cards
VAWA Self-petitioning & Cancellation
U Visas
T Visas
Work authorization for nonimmigrant spouses of H visa holders

10. How can you help them with this?
Advocates?
Law enforcement officers?
Judges?
Lawyers?

11. Some possible roles: Law Enforcement
Ensure survivors can tell you their story (interpretation issues)
Refer for services, realizing they may not know
What a shelter is
That they can access justice and what that means, i.e., protection orders
Abusers will have told them they will be deported if they try
Sign certifications for U visas if they are helpful or have been helpful
Provide letters of support with facts about how they helped and what harm you saw

12. Some possible roles: Judges
NCJFCJ training, if you are interested in more
Recognize when immigration status (or lack) is being used as a weapon in your courtroom
Make findings in protection orders and other civil matters that are particularly helpful to immigrant survivors
Encourage your civil and criminal systems to get trained

13. Some possible roles: Lawyers
Family and criminal law
Countering immigration status intimidation
Learn and ask for useful factual findings
Immigration
Do you know about BIA recognition and accreditation?
Wyoming Coalition is providing immigration legal services this way
Work with advocates and LEOs to identify and pursue immigration status

14. Some possible roles: Advocates
Explain how our systems work
”negotiate” safe cooperation with law enforcement if fear is an impediment
What confidentiality means and your relationship with government systems
What their rights are in those systems
Do immigration safety planning
Get the full story and help them frame it
Help them find immigration representation
Corroborate non-physical violence and harm from the crime
Help identify and creatively collect supporting documentation
Other things you are doing/think you could do?

15. Immigration Safety Planning
Where are they most at risk?
Collect and copy important documents (identity, medical and financial information)
Carry name of attorney and your phone number
Letter from you saying you are working with her and how to reach you
Ensure they have powers of attorney and legally enforceable plans for child custody in place
Ensure your offices have plan for responding if contacted
Criminal legal system
Courthouse enforcement/ local law enforcement share fingerprint info with ICE/

16. Tools: collaboration and common ground
”Ancestor” exercise
Identify, air out and address myths and issues
Share and discuss special DV forms and barriers
Discuss roles and priorities
Be clear and honest on where they conflict and agree

17. Example: IMMIGRANT REALITIES: Ancestor Exercise
How did your ancestors get to the U.S?
What were their goals and aspirations?
What barriers did they experience to full participation in society?
9:00 –– 9:30/9:45 Gail

19. Best outreach practices
What works for you? What hasn’t worked?
Where do your immigrant survivors go?
Who is a trusted messenger for them?

20. How we can help
ASISTA Immigration Assistance =
Connect you with others in your area
Train you = webinars, in-person, you tell us what works for you
Special BIA accreditation and recognition training for advocates with CLINIC
Help you with individual cases (technical assistance)
Identify possible options
And what you can do to help
Find an immigration expert to help
Help you frame the case
Communicate with government decision makers to resolve problems