For this article, the Immigrant Legal Resource Center interviewed defenders from four counties in California. Each with a different model. The models include having a full-time or a part-time in-house immigration specialist; contracting with an outside organization; having an in-house specialist supported by a contract; and having a full-time in-house specialist who also provides deportation defense. The defenders discuss the elements of these models, how they are funded, what the day-to-day work is like, and advice they would give to others starting such a program.

There have been numerous reports of Immigration and Customs Enforcement ("ICE") arresting people across the United States.

The estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. face massive challenges under President Donald Trump's administration. Increased anti-immigrant rhetoric, deportations carried out through U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and Department of Justice's threats to sanctuary cities have pushed immigrants back into the shadows. The number of immigrants with no criminal record who have been arrested increased by more than 250 percent in one year. Several conservative states have also increased their attacks on undocumented immigrants and sanctuary cities - municipalities that prevent a law enforcement agency from participating in federal immigration enforcement.

City executive order ensuring city benefits and services are available without regard to immigration status.

One of the many ways to help a person facing deportation is to lift up their case publicly. The major organizing objectives of publicly lifting up an individual case are to connect the individual person’s imminent deportation and story to the larger local, regional and national immigration enforcement, and to bring public light and scrutiny to government immigration enforcement. Lifting up the individual case is an opportunity to hold DHS and other agencies accountable when abusive tactics and discriminatory patterns of enforcement are identified. This report serves as a guide to help select which cases to uplift and describes the planning and strategizing necessary for execution.

One of the paradoxes at the center of the struggle for immigrant rights in the United States is that while immigration law and policy is made at the national level, most of the impacts of those laws occur at the local level. Politicians and bureaucrats in Washington, DC, negotiate and renegotiate a statutory framework that includes some and excludes others, and design and redesign a police apparatus to enforce the framework. Meanwhile, in towns and cities across the country, immigrants and the neighborhoods they are part of experience firsthand the difficult realities of trying to live, work, take care of a family, and participate in community within a set of legal structures that do not always protect their basic rights and freedoms.

Sanctuary is a tool that provides a place of refuge and safety to those facing deportation. This report provides a brief history of the Sanctuary movement and outlines the resurgence of the Sanctuary movement under the Trump Administration. Additionally, this report calls for the protection and expansion of Sanctuary spaces, and provides tools and talking points to help achieve this goal.

Culver City Police Policy of Responding to ICE Detainer Requests specifically stipulates they city won't honor hold requests or give ICE notification of release dates.

The Victims of Trafficking and Violence Prevention Act (VTVPA) passed with bipartisan support in 2000. The VTVPA created the U Visa, a nonimmigrant visa for victims of certain crimes who have been, or are likely to be, helpful to law enforcement in the investigation or prosecution of a crime. The purpose of this is two-fold. First, it enhances law enforcement's ability to investigate and prosecute crimes. Second, it furthers humanitarian interests by protecting victims of serious crimes.

King County Superior Court Policy on No Courtroom Arrests Based on Immigration Status