Where We Work

The Justice Campaign is proud to partner with legal service providers and pro bono representation projects located across the country. The Justice Campaign and its partners currently need volunteers to help individuals detained at the locations below.

Dilley, Texas: South Texas Family Residential Center

Partner: Dilley Pro Bono Project

The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), the American Immigration Council, the Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid, and Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC) are partners in the Dilley Pro Bono Project (DPBP). DPBP operates a non-traditional pro bono model of legal services that directly represents the immigrant mothers and children detained at the 2,400-bed South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas. The vast majority of families detained here are fleeing extreme violence in Central America and elsewhere and are seeking asylum in the United States.

DPBP organizes volunteer teams for each week. DPBP asks volunteers to commit to a Sunday-to-Friday work schedule and to arrive Sunday evening for a mandatory on-the-ground orientation meeting. After an exhilarating week, the team leaves the following Saturday, and a new team arrives to take over the caseload and carry the work forward. For more information or to volunteer, visit our Dilley Pro Bono Project page.

Denver, Colorado: Denver Contract Detention Facility

Partner: Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network

The Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network (RMIAN) is a nonprofit organization based in Colorado that provides free immigration legal services to individuals in civil immigration detention. RMIAN is at the Denver Detention Facility on a daily basis, providing Know Your Rights presentations, pro se workshops, individual screenings, and direct legal services to detained noncitizens. Even though it is located only 30 minutes outside of downtown Denver, roughly 89% of noncitizens detained at the Denver Detention Facility are unrepresented in their immigration case.

Elizabeth, New Jersey: Elizabeth Detention Facility

Partner: American Friends Service Committee

The Immigrant Rights Program of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) provides direct representation to immigrants detained at the Elizabeth Detention Facility. A stone’s throw from New York City, the Newark area is home to several large detention centers that house hundreds of noncitizens pending their removal proceedings, including the Elizabeth Detention Facility (roughly 300 immigration beds), the Essex County Correctional Facility (roughly 800), and the Hudson Detention Center (over 350). For detained noncitizens whose cases are heard at the Elizabeth Immigration Court, the latest data reveals that only 28% are represented in their removal proceedings.

El Paso, Texas: Various Detention Centers

Partner: Santa Fe Dreamers Project

The Immigration Justice Campaign is a partner in the El Paso Immigration Collaborative (EPIC), a collective of multiple local and national legal organizations whose goals are to increase access to counsel for detained immigrants and provide increased oversight of the immigration courts in and around El Paso, TX. One of our EPIC fellow members is the Santa Fe Dreamers Project. Together, we provide pro bono remote legal representation for detained individuals eligible for release on bond. We use technology, innovative legal theory, and legal volunteers across the United States to bring due process and support to approximately 3,500 people held in immigration custody.

Georgia & Louisiana: Various Detention Centers

Partner: Southeast Immigrant Freedom Initiative, Southern Poverty Law Center

The Southeast Immigrant Freedom Initiative (SIFI) provides pro bono legal representation to immigrants detained in the southeastern United States. SIFI seeks to assist immigrants who are held in immigration detention centers that are located in remote areas and where rates of representation can be as low as 6%. To make matters worse, the immigration courts in these areas are widely considered to be “asylum-free” zones. Atlanta’s immigration judges deny asylum applications 98% of the time, which dwarfs the national average of roughly 51% and calls into question respect for the rule of law in these areas.

Youngstown, Ohio: Northeast Ohio Correctional Center

Partner: International Institute of Akron

The International Institute of Akron (IIA) is a nonprofit agency founded in 1916 that provides free and low-cost immigration legal services to individuals in civil immigration detention, as well as to children throughout the state. The Institute promotes knowledge of legal rights, provides effective representation to ensure due process, works to improve detention conditions, and promotes a more humane immigration system, including alternatives to detention. With almost 1,000 detention beds and little legal service provision, the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center is operated by for-profit private prison company CoreCivic. Cases are heard in the Cleveland Immigration Court.