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Policy and Community Education

IRC Documents Illinois’s Failure to Protect Immigrant Victims of Crime

In order to provide greater access to the U and T visa programs, the Illinois legislature passed the Voices of Immigrant Communities Empowering Survivors (VOICES) Act, which came into effect on January 1, 2019. The purpose of the VOICES Act is to provide procedural protections for immigrants who have been victimized by violent crime or human trafficking. Five years after the VOICES Act became law, IRC has conducted a statewide survey to evaluate its impact. This survey revealed widespread violations of the VOICES Act by agencies across the state as documented by its Voices Ignored report.

Additionally, IRC has developed a manual to help immigrant victims of crime across the state of Illinois learn more about the U and T visa process and file U and T visa applications without a lawyer (pro se). This Manual is not a substitute for tailored legal advice from an experienced immigration lawyer. Laws can change over time, and we still recommend reaching out to a lawyer or advocate to confirm that this information remains accurate.

IRC and NIJC Release Guide for Criminal Defense Attorneys Representing Non-Citizens

In September 2021, IRC and the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) released A Brief Guide to Representing Noncitizen Criminal Defendants in Illinois, which provides criminal defense attorneys and immigration practitioners critical information they need to minimize the immigration consequences of their clients’ criminal convictions. The publication of this manual was made possible by a capacity-building grant from the Illinois Access to Justice Program. The Guide is updated annually.

Federal immigration law imposes severe consequences on non-citizens with criminal histories. Even convictions for relatively minor offenses can lead to deportation, including for lawful permanent residents who have lived in the United States for decades. Although non-citizens can also face deportation after being convicted on federal charges, most non-citizens who are deported on criminal grounds are deported because of state criminal convictions. Because of this, defense attorneys must have a basic knowledge of immigration law to advise their non-citizen clients of the immigration consequences of certain criminal convictions.

This manual provides Illinois defense attorneys with tools to zealously advocate for non-citizen clients in criminal court. The first guide of its kind in Illinois, it will help prevent the deportation of thousands of Illinois residents each year.

Jacob Hamburger, ’21; Patrick Berning-O’Neill, ’21; Jordan Jenkins, ’23; and Brad Posdal, ’23, researched and drafted the report.

IRC Publishes Report on How Chicago’s Use of Digital Surveillance Technology

In June 2021, IRC, Organized Communities Against Deportation, Mijente, and Just Futures Law published a report called The Digital Deportation Machine: How Surveillance Technology Undermines Chicago’s Welcoming City Policy. The report detailed how data from the CPD’s gang database, automated license plate readers, and facial recognition software is funneled to Fusion Centers run jointly with Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”), and how this information-sharing is a loophole written into the City’s Welcoming City Ordinance, which is supposed to prohibit cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities. The Associated Press covered the release of the report. Jacob Hamburger, ’21, and Kathleen Schmidt, ’22, researched and drafted the report.

IRC Response to COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a public health crisis in immigration detention facilities across the country, and has caused the current Administration to further restrict the right to asylum at the Southern Border. The Immigrants’ Rights Clinic has undertaken a wide variety of projects to protect immigrants in detention from COVID-19 and to ensure that the pandemic does not prevent immigrants from seeking asylum.

The Immigrants’ Rights Clinic has: