IDP’s Legal Resource Center

Immigrant defendants often are not fully informed of the immigration consequences of the criminal charges against them. As a result, many immigrants plead guilty to offenses that will make them deportable – and discover this only after the federal government begins removal proceedings.

Since 1997, IDP has strived to ensure that immigrants accused of crimes are fairly and properly advised of the immigration implications of charges brought against them in criminal or other legal proceedings in order to avoid uninformed choices and unjust results.

To accomplish this, IDP:

• trains the criminal defense and immigration bars in New York and across the country on the impact of criminal dispositions on their clients’ immigration status;
• produces legal resource materials to enable criminal defense attorneys to provide accurate advice to  their immigrant clients; and
• serves as an ongoing resource for criminal defense attorneys, other criminal justice advocates, and immigration advocates, including through consultation on individual cases.

In 2002, IDP joined with partner organizations to launch the Defending Immigrants Partnership (DIP), a national effort to increase defender awareness of and expertise in how to represent noncitizen clients in criminal proceedings. Our DIP partners are the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild and the National Legal Aid & Defender Association.