When news broke in May that 389 workers had been detained in Pottsville, Iowa, in the largest single-site immigration raid in U.S. history, advocates had a new resource to turn to: the Immigration Advocates Network (IAN), a “one-stop” website developed by Pro Bono Net and leading immigrants’ rights organizations. (Click here for a previous article.)
IAN has responded to recent immigration raids by providing timely online trainings and podcasts by national experts, sending out weekly emails highlighting important resources and by developing an extensive online library of raids related information, including sample legal documents, community preparedness toolkits and “know your rights” materials.
IAN was launched April 1 with the goal of enhancing and unifying the work of the nation's immigrants' rights organizations. The site provides news, trainings and substantive legal resources for advocates as well as communication tools that allow for a quick response to events such as the recent raids.
IAN’s membership has climbed rapidly since its launch, with more than 2,400 advocates as of mid-June. Nonprofit immigration attorneys, paralegals and accredited representatives make up the bulk of IAN’s membership, although immigration policy staff and other nonprofit advocates who work with immigrants are also members. Recently, direct mail and email campaigns have contributed to increases of between 20 and 40 new members each week.
“It’s wonderful to see so much interest and enthusiasm for IAN,” said Matthew Burnett, IAN’s Project Coordinator. “Such rapid growth in a period of only a few months really speaks to the need for the tools and resources that we and our partners provide, particularly to rural programs and those without the means to support the breadth and depth of trainings and substantive materials available on the site. IAN truly puts the nation’s experts in their offices.”
Specific features of the site include a library with manuals and sample materials; podcasts, videos and online trainings with immigration experts; a national calendar of immigration trainings and events; timely news and alerts; and listservs on immigration law topics. IAN's online library includes information on family-based immigration, immigration and crimes, naturalization, raids, driver's licenses, immigration policy and program capacity building.
IAN is notable for its use of multimedia tools, particularly for training. While the site offers a calendar of training events around the country, users who cannot attend live trainings due to geographic or time constraints can access trainings via video, podcast and webinars, both live and archived.
The launch of IAN’s site was the culmination of a two-year planning process intended to foster greater collaboration within the immigrants’ rights sector at a time when increased immigration, and an influx of immigrants to rural areas, has created an urgent need to increase capacity to provide immigration legal services. During the 1990’s the foreign-born population grew by 57%, with approximately one-third of these new arrivals settling in so-called “New Immigrant Gateways,” generally rural areas without a history of immigration and lacking in adequate legal services.
IAN’s partners include the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, home to IAN Project Director Debbie Smith, ACLU Immigrant’s Rights Project, the ABA Commission on Immigration, the American Immigration Lawyers Association, the American Immigration Law Foundation, the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, the National Immigration Law Center, the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, Pro Bono Net and The Advocates for Human Rights. Funding for IAN has been partly provided by grants from the Strengthening U.S. Democracy program of the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
Non-profit immigration advocates, organizers and legal service providers can get involved by registering at http://www.immigrationadvocates.org. For more information, contact Matthew Burnett at mburnett@immigrationadvocates.org.
