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immigration resources

Immigration and deportation resources

Published December 7, 2024 by Scill Chan

Immigration and deportation resources – Here are some resources for our families and your networks that we have compiled from the DOE and from our community.

  1. Immigration Advocates Network – They have multiple types of support, including training, podcasts and webinars. 
  2. New York Immigration Coalition – NYIC has information about KYR training and multiple resources for families.
  3. Immigrant Legal Resource Center – ILRC also has a broad range of resources as well as red cards in multiple languages, which provide information about what to do in encounters with ICE.
  4. Childcare Safety Plan – This is a resource from 2019 that helps families plan for possible separation. Prior to using it, it might be worthwhile to look for an updated form, but this at least addresses the idea of making contingency plans if part of a family is detained.
  5. Informed Immigrant For current or potential asylum-seekers/refugees and TPS holders: Consider Taking These Steps Before January 2025: File an asylum claim if you haven’t. If you are on humanitarian parole, temporary protected status (TPS), deferred enforcement (DED), or have a visa set to expire soon, you are at risk of losing your status. Apply for a work permit if you are eligible, even if you do not plan to work. Apply to renew your work permit if you have a two-year work permit that will expire before 2028.  Consider applying for another immigration status in addition to asylum, if you are eligible.  If you are arrested or lose your status, you are at risk of being “administratively detained” and held “pending removal.” As of this writing, US authorities cannot fly people back to Myanmar, Afghanistan, Venezuela, Syria, and several other countries, because those countries are unwilling to accept the return of their nationals. But people from those countries who are out of status could be detained, could be removed to third countries, or their home countries could change their stances and allow returns. Visit the sites above for more. For work authorizations, Informed Immigrant just released a new resource to help DACA recipients & other immigrants explore pathways to a more durable status. The guide contains tips on how to ask your employer for visa sponsorship. In partnership with the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, the guide also includes: 
    • An overview of employment-based visa options
    • How to prepare a request for sponsorship
    • Tips and resources for how to approach your employer
    • FAQ’s & more.
    EnglishSpanishOther key issues applicable to all: 
    • People with Lawful Permanent Resident (LPR or Green Card) status would be well advised to become naturalized citizens. LPRs or green card holders should apply for US citizenship as soon as they can because an LPR status doesn’t protect them from being deported under other grounds (e.g., a criminal conviction, or administration revocation of their status on other grounds).
     
    • Do not commit any crime, however minor, as the mass deportation campaign will focus first on ‘criminal aliens,’ broadly defined.  Even lawful permanent residents who are convicted of a crime will be at risk of removal.
     
    • Get your children US passports. If your child was born in the United States, visit www.travel.state.gov for more information on obtaining a U.S. passport. If your child was born in a different country, check with the embassy or consulate for more information on obtaining a passport.
     
    • Inform your family and emergency contacts about how to contact you, if you are detained by ICE. Family members can use the ICE detainee locator: https://locator.ice.gov/odls/#/ search to find someone in ICE custody. Be sure your family and emergency contacts have a copy of your A-Number (your registration number found on your immigration documents from ICE), if you have one.
     
    • Keep copies of US identity documents with you at all times, and if you have children, theirs as well (including proof of US citizenship if children were born here, i.e., social security card, birth certificate).”  The originals should be kept in a safe place.
     
    • Do not carry on you any documents proving your foreign citizenship—e.g., foreign passport, birth certificate. Keep them in a safe place in your home.
     
    • Memorize key phone numbers for legal hotlines, your children and emergency contacts, etc., and memorize your A-number, in the event your phone or documents are taken from you.
     Links and resources: Asylum Seeker Advocacy Center (for asylum seekers – but the “get help” section is applicable generally: Find Help – Resources for Asylum Seekers.)  See also:National Immigration Law Center: Know Your RightsCoalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA) Know Your RightsImmigrant Legal Resource Center Community Resourcesinformedimmigrant.com
  6. New York Immigration Coalition Know Your Rights (Multiple Languages)
  7. Asylum Seeker Advocacy Center (for asylum seekers – but the “get help” section is applicable generally: Find Help. More on that below.)

Published in BCS News