Immigrants' Rights

North Carolina has one of the most rapidly growing immigrant populations in the country.  Because of language barriers, discrimination, and immigration status, among other things, immigrants are highly vulnerable to exploitation in the workplace, housing, and as consumers. When immigrants are easily taken advantage of, it impacts the living and working conditions of everyone in the community. Significant cooperation between local law enforcement and immigration enforcement has led to a climate of fear and heightened vulnerability among immigrants in North Carolina.

The Justice Center works to lessen the exploitation of immigrants through three major projects:

• The Immigrants Legal Assistance Project (ILAP) provides direct legal assistance to low-income immigrants with Citizenship and Immigration Service (CIS), at the asylum office, in Immigration Court and with the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) to help them gain legal immigration status. ILAP attorneys also supervise three BIA certified workers who represent clients before CIS.  ILAP also represents migrant and seasonal farmworkers in impact litigation designed to improve their wages, health and safety, and working conditions.
• The Eastern Carolina Immigrants’ Rights Project, a collaboration between Legal Services of North Carolina and the Justice Center, litigates high-impact cases on behalf of low-income immigrants in the eastern part of the state in the areas of employment, consumer, and housing.
• The Network of Immigrant Advocates provides training, technical assistance and community education on immigration law issues, immigrants’ and refugees' rights, workers’ rights, and immigrants’ access to public benefits and government services to immigrant advocates across North Carolina. The Network collaborates with local, regional, statewide and national groups, and works to strengthen the capacity of immigrants’ groups to effectively address individual and community-wide problems that low-income immigrants and refugees face.

• Carol Brooke, Migrant Worker Attorney
• Lisa Chun, Immigration Attorney
• Anna Fedders, Migrant Worker legal assistant
• Clermont Fraser, Migrant Worker Attorney
• Tana Liu-Beers, Immigration Attorney
• Dineira Paulino, Immigration Paralegal
• Dani Martinez-Moore, Coordinator, Network of Immigrant Advocates
• Dan Rearick, ECIRP Attorney
• Jessica Rocha, ECIRP Paralegal
• Cristin Ruggles, Immigration Paralegal
• Kate Woomer-Deters, ECIRP Attorney