Our Immigrant Advocacy program supports low-income immigrants in their efforts to find justice and fair treatment. In addition to representing clients with individual legal issues, we promote systemic reforms to reduce the abuse and exploitation of immigrants, and advocate for state and local policies that promote integration and protect immigrants from aggressive immigration enforcement.
We represent low-wage immigrants in legal proceedings, counsel them about their rights and help them take steps to empower themselves and prepare for the worst, recover unpaid wages they have earned, combat workplace and housing discrimination, and fight for their civil rights.
We represent immigrants across Virginia, from the tomato fields of the Eastern Shore to restaurant kitchens in Charlottesville to luxury apartment construction sites in Arlington. Our work aims to end the mass detention and deportation of immigrants, with a special focus on child refugees fleeing violence and individuals and communities targeted for enforcement by overzealous federal immigration agents.
Beginning in 2017, we have expanded our efforts to serve the thousands of immigrant farmworkers living in isolated areas throughout Virginia. We meet workers at the labor camps, mobile home parks and motels where those who pick, pack and process Virginia’s crops reside, sometimes for only a few months each year. The degraded living and working conditions of many farmworkers would offend those who enjoy the food they produce through their toil. Physical isolation, language barriers and insecure immigration status make farmworkers particularly vulnerable to exploitation, through wage theft, labor trafficking and other offenses.