New capacity-building hub will provide training, practice advisories, and resources for attorneys, partner organizations, and immigrant communities
CHICAGO — The National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) is excited to announce its new Advocate Training Center, a capacity-building hub offering trainings, practice advisories, and other resources to defend immigrant communities.
NIJC’s Advocate Training Center will expand legal resources for community partners, pro bono attorneys, and immigrants. The Advocate Training Center will respond to the rapidly changing immigration landscape and equip advocates to address emerging challenges.
To formally initiate this work, the Advocate Training Center will host a series of trainings on appeals before the Board of Immigration Appeals this fall. This will include a virtual training for pro bono attorneys on September 16 and an in-person convening for partner organizations in Chicago in early October.
NIJC has long offered sessions on critical topics such as fighting prolonged detention, defending due process as immigration judges try to pretermit cases without a full hearing, and protecting the parental rights of community members in detention. Additionally, NIJC has offered introductory courses on representing asylum seekers, survivors of crimes and trafficking, and people in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention along with dozens of other trainings. Through the Advocate Training Center, NIJC will both create new substantive offerings and expand access to these existing opportunities.
Later this year, NIJC will launch a learning management system that will serve as the online home for Advocate Training Center’s trainings, materials, and resources. The portal will make it easier for advocates to find practical support for their work with immigrant communities. NIJC will also expand its “office hours” offerings to make more slots available for other legal service providers in the region.
“The Advocate Training Center enables NIJC to continue the work NIJC was founded to do: equip legal advocates with the trainings and resources necessary to provide high-quality representation to immigrants. In a rapidly changing environment, immigrants and their legal advocates need resources they can trust. Through the Advocate Training Center, NIJC and our pro bono and community partners will continue responding to emerging needs and serving immigrants at scale.” said Charlotte Sall, Pro Bono Manager at NIJC.
“NIJC is fortunate to have deep expertise across so many areas of immigration law. The Advocate Training Center gives us a way to put that knowledge to work for the broader movement,” said Elizabeth Gibson, Managing Attorney for Capacity Building at NIJC. “We want to empower the next generation of advocates while also helping legal experts, community partners, and immigrants keep pace with the overwhelming barrage of legal updates, policy changes, and case law.”
The Advocate Training Center will build on NIJC’s history of providing pro bono and community support to strengthen the community of advocates rising to meet the challenges of this moment. Funding for the Advocate Training Center was provided by Walder Foundation.