Esperanza’s Mira Loma Services:

An attorney from Esperanza is at Mira Loma five days a week, Monday through Friday.  Regularly, paralegals, administrative assistants or volunteers go with the attorney.  Together, they provide the following services:

Large Group Legal Rights Classes:

Every work day, typically beginning at 8:30 a.m., an Esperanza attorney gives a class on immigration law to every person in detention at Mira Loma who was booked into the facility the night before (occasionally, we are unable to give our class to individuals who were put into segregation or who voluntarily declined to attend, and occasionally we are unable to offer the class due to a holiday or staff unavailability).   In calendar year 2010, Esperanza gave this class to 6,154 human beings detained at the Mira Loma Detention Center. The class describes:

• The different types of deportation and their consequences;
• The legal requirements necessary to qualify for an immigration bond (however, very, very few people qualify for bond under current law);
• The most common criminal convictions that have immigration consequences; and
• The requirements of different types of legal claims that would qualify a person to stay lawfully in the United States.

Individual Legal Orientations:

After almost every large group legal rights class, Esperanza staff meet with as many detainees individually as possible.  We continue our teaching and explaining of the law, explain the consequences of alternative choices in the immigration process, and answering questions about the law. 

Workshops:

Esperanza attorneys and staff also offer advanced classes to individuals who are pursuing the same types of claims in their immigration hearings.  For example, we offer advanced classes on asylum law and on a defense for long-time lawful residents, called Cancellation of Removal for Lawful Permanent Residents.  In these classes we teach the law of a particularly claim in much more detail than in our general overview class.  We also offer weekly workshops on bond, explaining to individuals who qualifies for bond and how to ask the Immigration Judge for bond.

Pro Bono Attorney Placement:

Esperanza works to find pro bono (free) attorneys for people fighting their cases at Mira Loma.  These attorneys agree to represent people for free in the Immigration Court, under the guidance and mentorship of an Esperanza attorney.  Please see our pro bono page for more information.

Legal Representation:

Esperanza is able to take the cases of a small number of people detained at Mira Loma.  Please see our legal representation page for more information.

Approximately 8,000 immigrant children traveling without parents, guardians or valid immigration documents are detained nationally by the US government each year while the government decides if they should be permitted to remain in the US or returned to their home countries.  Who are the children in immigration detention?  These children are detained for an extended period of time under a variety of programs run by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (“ORR”) and administered by local ORR subcontractors.  The Los Angeles-area ORR subcontractor is Crittenton Services in Fullerton, which administers an ORR shelter for unaccompanied Minors, an ORR foster care program for minors unable to be reunited with family in the US, and an ORR “unaccompanied refugee minors” (URM) program for child refugees and victims of trafficking.

LA CRIMINAL DETENTION PROGRAM

Esperanza offers legal education and information to non-citizen inmates at two Los Angeles County Jails in downtown Los Angeles: Men's Central Jail and the Twin Towers Correctional Facility.  Though only twice a week, the Esperanza criminal detention team gives a class on immigration law to individuals who have identified themselves to the Los Angeles Sheriffs Department as having been born in a country other than the United States.  Not all immigrants at the facilities we serve with receive our classes due to segregation rules and the fast transfer of detainees between facilities.  

Unlike defendants in the criminal justice system, immigrants facing deportation in immigration court do not get government-paid attorneys (public defenders).  Many are forced to represent themselves in the extremely complex immigration system, often while they are detained, to fight their case alone against trained government prosecutors.  Not surprisingly, unrepresented immigrants are far more  likely to lose their cases than those who can obtain attorneys.

Esperanza attorneys conduct intake interviews with detainees several times per week and frequently identify individuals who qualify for relief from deportation to be able to stay legally in the United States.  Detainees often qualify for asylum, cancellation of removal, U-visas, T-visas, and adjustment of status; some even have valid potential claims to U.S. citizenship.