Expanding legal representation for formerly incarcerated immigrants

Immigrant and Refugee Support

County of Los Angeles

Expand existing project, program, or initiative

AOL staff are national leaders and experts in the field of immigration law. AOL was founded in 2015 and has provided pro-bono legal services to indigent immigrants and refugees since then. AOL's staff have years of experience screening immigrant clients for relief eligibility and supporting detained immigrants as well as those leaving detention or who have been formerly incarcerated by the Department of Homeland Security. Since 2019, AOL has won release from immigration detention for over 60 detained clients. Since 2019, we have won asylum for more than 30 individuals and secured other forms of relief from deportation for many more clients. Our program's success rate reflects our expertise and the high quality of our work. AOL staff are not only experts on the legal complexities of navigating immigration matters for formerly incarcerated immigrants, but also have decades of combined experience connecting clients with non-legal resources to ensure holistic, humane case management.

AOL represents immigrants in legal cases that are on what is called a "non-detained docket." In immigration removal proceedings, or proceedings commenced against immigrants by the United States with the goal of deportation, cases are heard either on a detained docket or a non-detained dockets. The detained docket moves much more quickly than the non-detained docket because immigrants on the detained docket are incarcerated and their liberty interest is at stake. However, immigrants who leave detention face massive obstacles to a smooth transition in their legal proceedings. They must change court venue from the detained docket court where they were incarcerated to a non-detained docket; ensure they have legal representation in the new venue; present their case again to a new judge unfamiliar with their story; ensure they either continue to have legal counsel in the new venue or find new representation in their new geographic location. Exacerbating these difficulties is the fact that the non-detained docket is massively backlogged, with many cases on timelines of two, three, four, or even five years until final decision. AOL works with formerly incarcerated immigrants to ensure their cases are successfully transferred to the non-detained docket, provide direct representation before the new court, and connect them with resources to live while their cases slowly proceed. AOL already does this work, and this grant will support us in expanding this much-needed representation.

In working closely with detained immigrants, we have witnessed the daily abuses and indignities they suffer while incarcerated for mere civil immigration violations. This is why we work zealously to pursue release from detention for every client possible. However, leaving detention is often just the beginning: formerly incarcerated immigrants must continue to pursue their immigration cases to final decision while also ensuring they have income, healthcare, housing, food, and other essentials to thrive while in these emotionally difficult legal proceedings. Given Los Angeles county's proximity to the United States-Mexico border and numerous immigration detention centers, it is a place where many immigrants go to begin their lives in the United States after bravely crossing the border or leaving immigration detention. Expanding our legal representation program will ensure that Los Angeles county is a more humane, dignified place for vulnerable immigrants leaving detention to live.

AOL has the capacity to track qualitative and quantitative measures of success and impact. Quantitative measures employed are tracking the completion of intakes, case filings, case outcomes, social services support, and case management progress points as defined by our internal metrics. AOL also tracks demographic data, application type, and other metrics as required for grant reporting. Qualitatively, we consider legal services to be a formalized form of storytelling, and we build our collective knowledge through sharing our observations, the experiences we hear from clients and their families and communities, and other narratives that inform our process and outcomes. Evidence that our efforts are working are the case outcomes that directly impact a client's ability to live safely in the United States with legal status. Since 2019, we have won asylum for 30 individuals and won release from immigration custody for 60 detained clients. In 2022, we successfully completed 109 cases.