Esperanza is a non-profit law office that serves especially vulnerable immigrants, particularly those in immigration detention in the Los Angeles metropolitan region, who cannot afford private counsel. 

We teach...

• Esperanza provides free law classes to large numbers of detained immigrants about their rights, about immigration law, and about how to fight their own cases in court;
• Esperanza teaches immigrant communities about their rights and about what happens in the immigration detention system in community workshops; and 
• Esperanza provides continuing legal education to immigration attorneys and non-immigration attorneys about immigration law, in exchange for those attorneys representing detained immigrants for free.

We find volunteer attorneys…

• Esperanza works to place the cases of detained immigrants with pro bono attorneys who will represent immigrants fighting deportation for free.

We represent immigrants in federal Immigration Court…

• Esperanza takes a small number of cases of detained immigrants in Immigration Court, helping them win their cases against deportation, for free. 

We advocate…

• Esperanza advocates locally and nationally for the just and fair treatment of all immigrants in detention.

Where We Work

Our attorneys provide free legal services to people detained in three Los Angeles-area detention systems:

(1) The Mira Loma Detention Center in Lancaster, CA, where Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) holds adult men in a facility managed by the Los Angeles Sheriffs Department (LASD) while their immigration cases are pending;

(2) Crittenton Services for Children and Families shelter in Fullerton, CA, where the Office of Refugee Resettlement holds immigrant children and youth while their immigration cases are pending; and

(3) The Los Angeles Sheriffs’ criminal jail system, where adult immigrant men are held, before and after completing criminal proceedings, including:

• The Men’s Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles
• Twin Towers Correction Facility in downtown Los Angeles

If you have a friend or family member who is detained at any of the jails listed above, we can speak with that person, answer questions, and provide information on immigration law—however, we can only very rarely represent individual clients.

Esperanza Immigrant Rights Project is a program of Catholic Charities of Los Angeles, Inc. 

Our Funders

The United States Federal Government

Esperanza’s non-representation activities are largely funded by the federal government.  The two federal agencies that support Esperanza’s non-representation work are the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR, Immigration Court), http://www.justice.gov/eoir/, which funds the Legal Orientation Program, http://www.justice.gov/eoir/probono/probono.htm, and the Legal Orientation Program for Custodians, and the Office of Refugee Resettlement, Department of Unaccompanied Minors (ORR-DUCS), which is responsible for the care and custody of underage immigrants in detention, http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/orr/programs/unaccompanied_alien_children.htm .

Esperanza’s contract with EOIR for the Legal Orientation Program and with ORR-DUCS is managed by the federal subcontractor, the Vera Institute of Justice, www.vera.org. 

Esperanza's contract with EOIR for the Legal Orientation Program for Custodians is managed by the federal subcontractor, the Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC), www.cliniclegal.org.

Important reports produced by the Vera Institute about our work, and the work of other EOIR and ORR-DUCS contractors:

http://www.vera.org/publication_pdf/477_877.pdf
http://www.vera.org/publication_pdf/475_874.pdf
http://www.vera.org/publication_pdf/478_884.pdf

The Federal Government of México

The Mexican Consulates of Los Angeles, Orange, and San Bernardino Counties all support Esperanza’s work in representing detained Mexican national adults and children in removal proceedings.  www.sre.gob.mx/losangeles/ 

www.sre.gob.mx/santaana/

www.sre.gob.mx/sanbernardino/

The Mexican Consulate of Los Angeles County also generously supports Esperanza in offering legal education and information to non-citizen inmates at two downtown Los Angeles County Jails: Men's Central Jail and the Twin Towers Correctional Facility.

Kids In Need Of Defense (KIND)

KIND funds one full-time attorney, currently Lindsay Tocsylowski, to represent detained and released children in removal removal proceedings before the immigration court. www.supportkind.org

Georgetown Law

Georgetown University Law Center (Georgetown Law), together with the Jesuit Refugee Service, generously subsidizes the salary of one Georgetown graduate to be a staff attorney providing all services provided by Esperanza:  representation, legal education, community education and advocacy, www.law.georgetown.edu .

Los Angeles County Bar Foundation (LACBF)

The Los Angeles County Bar Foundation supports Esperanza’s representation of unaccompanied immigrant children in removal proceedings, www.lacba.org .

Crittenton Services for Children and Families

Crittenton Services for Children and Families supports Esperanza’s representation of youth housed in the unaccompanied refugee minors foster care program.  http://crittentonsocal.org/

You!

We depend upon the support of people like you to help us inspire hope and advance social justice in the thousands of immigrants we serve each year.  Your gift of any amount is always appreciated and is completely tax deductable.