Working with Survivors at Risk of Removal
This section contains resources for immigration attorneys, practitioners, advocates, community organizers, and anyone working with immigrant survivors at risk of removal. You can find useful information translated in several languages to assist immigrant survivors with their rights in this country.
Sample Documents - One Pagers
Survivors' Safety Planning Resources
ILRC Family Preparedness Plan
This packet will help everyone create a Family Preparedness Plan, regardless of immigration status.
Español: Plan de Preparación Familiar de ILRC
Este paquete le ayudará a crear un plan de preparación familiar, independientemente de su estatus migratorio.
All Are Welcome Flyer (English)
All Are Welcome Flyers are available in different languages: Burmese Chinese Simplified Chinese Traditional Hmong Japanese Karen Malay Oromo Somali Spanish Vietnamese
Stay of Removal
Federal Court Litigation
New Tools for Furthering/Defending the Rights of VAWA & U Crime Survivors: Let's Go to Federal District Court! (September 27, 2017)
Webinar presented by: Maria Baldini-Potermin, Maria Baldini-Potermin & Associates, P.C.; Cecelia Friedman-Levin, ASISTA; Geoffrey Hoffman, University of Houston Law Center Immigration Clinic & Gail Pendleton, ASISTA.
Sample Mandamus (not U Visa)
Please contact questions@asistahelp.org to access the sample mandamus.
Amicus Brief on Bona Fide EAD for U Applicants
Many thanks to Celso Perez and Kurzban, Kurzban, Weinger, Tetzeli & Pratt for crafting the brief for us, to Julie Carpenter of Tahirih Justice Center and our other core group drafters, and to all the organizations that signed on. Click here to download the Amicus Brief on Bona Fide EAD for U Applicants in Word version.
Challenging Survivors Removal in Immigration Court
System Advocacy
In Defense of Organizing (May 2017)
Federal investigations and prosecutions, definitions, and organizing best practices.
En Defensa de la Organización Política (May 2017)
Investigaciones y prosecuciones federales, definiciones y practicas recomendadas para la organización política.
Webinar Presentations & Recordings: Survivor's Safety
Stays of Removal Webinar Recording (August 4, 2017)
Panelists: Audrey Carr, Director of Immigration and Special Programs, Legal Services, NYC; Cecelia Friedman Levin, Senior Policy Counsel, ASISTA; Mona Patel-Sikora, Directing Attorney, Immigration Center for Women & Children, and Gail Pendleton, Executive Director, ASISTA.
Avoiding Detention and Removal for VAWA and U Survivors (2017)
Webinar presented by Cecelia Friedman Levin, ASISTA Senior Policy Counsel; and Gail Pendleton, ASISTA Executive Director.
Enhanced Safety Planning for Immigrant Survivors of Domestic and Sexual Violence (February 24, 2017)
Webinar presented by Grace Huang, Asian Pacific Institute on Gender-Based Violence; Rosie Hidalgo, Casa de Esperanza: National Latin@ Network; Leslye Orloff, National Immigrant Women’s Advocacy Project; Archi Pyati, Tahirih Justice Center; and Cecelia Friedman Levin, ASISTA. Click here to access the Webinar Recording
Español: Planeamiento de Seguridad Reforzado para Inmigrantes Sobrevivientes de Violencia Doméstica y Sexual (Marzo 3, 2017)
Webinario en espanol presentado por Rosie Hidalgo, Casa de Esperanza; Sonia Parras Konrad, ASISTA y Rocio Molina, Proyecto Nacional por la Defensa de las Mujeres Inmigrantes.
Webinar Series Training (Pre-Recorded): Helping those Released from Family Detention: Asylum Options for Immigrant Survivors of Domestic and Sexual Violence (2016)
This webinar series is for attorneys, accredited representatives, domestic and sexual violence advocates, mental health service providers and social workers already familiar with VAWA andU visas to help women and children released from family detention centers. Specifically, it is designed to expand your knowledge and capacity to help survivors fleeing domestic and sexual violence in their home countries apply for asylum.
Federal Court Advocacy
Amicus Brief NDC (March 22, 2017)
Proposed Brief for Tahirih Justice Center at al. Amicus Curiae in Support of Plaintiff's Motion for Preliminary Injunctions.
General Safety Planning Resources
Appleseed Deportation Manual
Appleseed deportation manual is a comprehensive resource designed for immigrants and service providers to develop plans related to financial and family issues in the event of deportation, arrest and other family emergencies. ASISTA and Asian Pacific Institute on Gender-Based Violence (API-GBV) are proud to author the chapter on Domestic Violence issues.
NGO Summaries
Know Your Rights Materials
ACLU Resources - Know Your Rights One-Pagers
ACLU Know Your Rights One-Pagers. Quick resource guide to your rights is stopped by police, immigration (ICE) or FBI. Available in English (Arabic) العَرَبِيَّة 中文(简) (Chinese) Creole , فارسی (Farsi) , Français (French) Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian) ,한국어 (Korean) Português (Portuguese) , Soomaali (Somali) , Español (Spanish) Tagalog (Urdu) اُردُو and Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese).
CLINIC Resources - Know Your Rights
Catholic Legal Immigration Network Inc. has extensive KYR materials available including comprehensive guides, one-pagers, and powerpoint presentations. Know Your Rights: A Guide to Know Your Rights when Interacting with Law Enforcement available in English, Spanish, Amharic, Chinese, and in other languages.
CLINIC Know Your Rights Quick Guides: Available in English, Spanish, Chinese, and Amharic.
Know Your Rights ICWC- English
ICWC thanks the National Immigration Law Center (www.NILC.org) for compiling and providing this information. ICWC has add specific information for its clients.
Know Your Rights ICWC- Spanish
ICWC thanks the National Immigration Law Center (www.NILC.org) for compiling and providing this information. ICWC has add specific information for its clients.
Know Your Rights and What Families Should Do Now
Know Your Rights and What Families Should Do Now is a brief advisory about the rights everyone has in the U.S.
DHS Implementing Guidance and FAQ
Enforcement and Detention Resources - ICE Guidance
LEAKED Memos
Evidentiary Protections & Confidentiality
Implementation of Section 1367: Information Provision Instructions (November 2013)
This instruction applies throughout DHS, particularly those employees who work with applicants for victim-based immigration relief or who have access to protected information, such as United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
ICE 384 Memo: VAWA Privacy Provisions (January 22, 2007)
This ICE memo provides interim guidance concerning the expanded confidentiality protections of the VAWA 2005 and the legislation's requirements that ICE issue a certificate of compliance in certain circumstances.
Other Useful Resources
Detained or Deported: What About My Children? Parental Rights Toolkit (Modified July 9, 2019)
The Women’s Refugee Commission published a toolkit for parents in 2014 that provides guidance on the following: Protecting parental rights when detained or deported; Making care arrangements for children; Determining if a child is in the child welfare system and participating in that system; Complying with a child welfare ordered reunification plan, Participating in family court proceedings; Reunifying with children following release from detention or deportation; Contact information for state child welfare agencies in all 50 states, Links to state-specific handbooks for parents with children in the child welfare system; Guidance on how to request appointed counsel in family court; List of states that provide court-appointed lawyers in family court, Instructions on applying for U.S. passports from detention; Contact information for adoption reunion registries; Contact information for child welfare agencies in Mexico and Central America.
ASISTA Stop Workplace Sexual Violence!
ASISTA Stop Workplace Sexual Violence Main Guide: Assisting Immigrant Survivors of Workplace Sexual Violence: A guide for advocates, organizers, and leaders to advance immigrant women's gender equality rights in the workplace (2016)
This project was supported by a Grant No. 2009-TA-AX-K009 awarded by the United States Department of Justice, Office of Violence Against Women. The opinions, findings, and recommendations expressed in this document are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women.
Frontline: Rape in the Fields (June 2013)
FRONTLINE and Univision partner to tell the story of the hidden price many migrant women working in America’s fields and packing plants pay to stay employed and provide for their families. This investigation is the result of a yearlong reporting effort by veteran FRONTLINE correspondent Lowell Bergman, the Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley, and the Center for Investigative Reporting.