Santa Barbara County Immigrant Legal Defense Center

The mission of the ILDC is to provide equal access to justice and due process to indigent immigrants. In doing so, the organization: 1) coordinates the recruitment and training of volunteer attorneys to provide pro bono immigration legal services to non-citizens, particularly those facing deportation; 2) provides community education to help immigrants understand their basic civil rights; and 3) serves as a resource to legal service providers in the area.

The ILDC provides pro bono deportation removal defense and detention bond representation through a hybrid model utilizing non-immigration attorneys, mentoring attorneys who are immigration specialists, and staff attorneys. The ILDC's legal services, begun in 2018, and are the only cost-free detention bond representation and removal defense available in Santa Barbara County. Prior to the organization's establishment, Santa Barbara County residents were without access to immigration defense services they could afford and thus either languished in detention, hired unscrupulous Notarios or went unrepresented and were thus more likely to be removed to their country of origin.

The ILDC's hybrid service model allowed the organization to move more quickly in filling the unmet need in Santa Barbara County. Current clients are served by volunteer attorneys and only in June of 2020 did the ILDC hire its first immigration attorney. This model could be replicated in other similarly situated small communities that do not have nonprofit organizations that provide no-cost removal defense services - especially rural communities across the country that have large numbers of undocumented residents working in agriculture, are physically isolated or distant to detention facilities and immigration courts, and where funding to hire staff may be limited.

Also, the ILDC's education program uses a Promotorx model to assist undocumented people to know their rights and defend themselves and their families from the Federal deportation machine. The Promotorx are members of the local immigrant community that speak Spanish and/or Mixteco and have received special training. These trainings are delivered to local school parents at their child's school, agricultural workers in the fields and in other locations where people gather. The ILDC is testing new methods of delivery via live streaming due to the current health crisis.

So far, the ILDC has recruited 40 volunteer attorneys to assist immigrants in removal proceedings. The ILDC continues to provide, these pro bono attorneys with training from attorneys with extensive experience in removal defense in California. The ILDC continues to connect the pro bono attorneys who take on cases with private immigration attorneys who offer technical assistance and mentorship. Our Executive Director provides support for each case, drafting family member declarations, collecting supporting evidence, etc. At times, the Executive Director also directly assists asylum seekers in obtaining release from detention (parole by ICE, which is less involved than bond hearings). Pro bono attorneys are given the option to continue representing their clients, on the merits of their case upon their release from detention (i.e., take on representation for the full defense of clients), if the ILDC can arrange for an extended mentorship. The ILDC also obtains pro bono services of law firms with removal defense expertise (mostly in the Los Angeles area where immigration hearings are conducted). Individuals eligible for our services are 1) residents of SB County; 2) unable to afford an attorney; and 3) statutorily eligible for bond and/or have potential merit in obtaining residency status.

In June 2020, the ILDC hired its first staff attorney who will directly provide full defense for individuals in deportation proceedings and technical assistance and mentorship to our volunteer attorneys. This staff attorney will personally carry up to 15 full defense cases at a time.

The ILDC started operating in March 2018, and since then they have been able to educate over 600+ individuals about their basic civil rights and legally represent 15 immigrant families. However, the ILDC’s growing waitlist of 100+ people in need of pro bono legal representation highlights the immediate need for these services and ILDC’s expansion.