More than 46 million people living in the United States were born elsewhere. Their positive contributions are immeasurable, but their rights are under attack. President Trump’s recent immigration executive orders seek to increase immigration detention, upend constitutional due process, threaten sanctuary jurisdictions, decimate legal pathways to residency and citizenship, and more. These actions are designed to cause confusion, sow chaos and dysfunction, and waste resources. They are cruel, extreme, and legally suspect.

This guide of Vera-verified information and resources was created to help immigrants navigating these challenging times along with advocates striving for a humane and just immigration system.

On this page:

• Know Your Rights and Planning Resources
• State-Specific Legal Help and Resources
• For Advocates, Journalists, Lawmakers, and Researchers
• For Advocates and Activists

Know Your Rights and Planning Resources

If you are at risk of being arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and detained or deported, many organizations offer resources to help you and your family prepare.

For urgent needs, ReadytoStay.org offers information on rapidly changing immigration policies and connects immigrants to local legal aid services.

The Immigrant Defense Project and American Civil Liberties Union offer general "Know Your Rights" materials to help you understand and assert your rights.

The Acacia Center for Justice’s legal guides and videos can help you navigate various immigration situations, including applying for bond from immigration detention. Similarly, LawHelp.org’s Immigration Legal Help hub outlines legal options available to immigrants in the United States and contact information for local organizations providing a range of immigration legal services. The Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project offers a series of videos specifically tailored for people seeking asylum. The Mayan League offers resources for people who speak Indigenous languages.

State-Specific Legal Help and Resources

During the first Trump administration, Vera founded the Safety & Fairness for Everyone (SAFE) Network to build publicly funded immigration legal defense programs at the state and local levels.

In the criminal legal system, people are guaranteed the right to an attorney, but that same right does not exist in immigration court, even though the consequences can be just as severe—if not worse. Immigration proceedings are incredibly complex and nearly impossible to understand without legal representation, and those challenges are far greater for people in immigration detention. SAFE Network programs address this critical need by ensuring that people facing deportation have access to a lawyer. SAFE partners are currently operating in 31 jurisdictions nationwide, with plans to expand further.

Vera’s verified SAFE partners, along with other legal service providers, are currently operating publicly funded legal defense programs in states including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Hawai`i, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington State, Wisconsin, and Washington, DC. If you are seeking legal help, the Immigration Legal Resources Pro Bono Net's National Immigration Legal Services Directory can provide you with a list of local legal aid organizations.

For Advocates, Journalists, Lawmakers, and Researchers

Vera generates evidence that exposes the dysfunction of the current immigration system by illustrating the scope and impact of legal representation and detention. Our collection of Immigration Data Tools and Maps is updated as new materials are released. Some highlights are below.

Immigration Court Legal Representation Dashboard

The immigration system is outdated and overloaded, leaving millions of people in limbo as they wait for the resolution of their cases. Vera’s Immigration Court Legal Representation Dashboard provides the most recent statistics and trends in proceedings in immigration court, along with information about how many people facing deportation lack attorneys. For example, as of December 2024, there was a backlog of 3.7 million deportation cases pending in immigration court. Sixty-seven percent of people facing deportation were navigating their cases alone.

ICE Detention Trends Dashboard

Vera’s ICE Detention Trends dashboard reveals an unprecedented level of detail about detention populations—nationally and across the 1,081 facilities in which ICE detained people—on each day of the 11 years immediately preceding the COVID-19 pandemic. Every year, ICE subjects hundreds of thousands of people to civil immigration detention—a practice that is unjust, inhumane, and completely unnecessary. Our dashboard exposes statistics and patterns that ICE’s public reporting obscures, including the alarming link between immigration detention and broader incarceration trends. The dashboard is currently being updated with new data through fiscal year 2023 and will be re-released soon.

The Movement for Deportation Defense: Information Hub

Vera’s Movement for Deportation Defense: Information Hub offers information about the growth of deportation defense programs around the country and efforts to establish a universal right to federally funded legal representation for anyone facing deportation. It also includes polling that shows that two out of three people in the United States support government-funded attorneys for people facing deportation.

For Advocates and Activists

People who support justice for immigrants can advocate for state and local funding for programs that help prevent unjust deportations.

In New York, for example, the Campaign for Access, Representation, and Equity (CARE) for Immigrant Families is currently advocating for New York State to invest $165 million in sustainable immigration legal services and infrastructure. This funding would support New Yorkers facing deportation who can’t afford attorneys. Similar campaigns are also underway in California and Massachusetts.

With so many lies being told about immigrants, it’s also important to uplift these facts:

1. Research has shown no connection between immigrants and increased crime. Immigrants of any legal status are typically found to be less involved in violence than native-born Americans. An extensive study of crimes in all 50 states and Washington, DC, from 1990 to 2014, found that undocumented immigration does not increase violent crime. Another study in Texas found that the criminal conviction rate for undocumented immigrants was 45 percent below that of native-born Texans.
2. Undocumented people pay an estimated $31 billion in federal, state, and local taxes each year. This includes billions of dollars into a social security system from which they can draw very few, if any, benefits. The Social Security Administration itself estimated that it collected $13 billion in payroll taxes in 2010 from workers without documentation, while only disbursing about $1 billion in payment attributable to unauthorized work.
3. The majority of the public believes that immigration brings benefits to the United States, including economic growth and enriching culture and values. Nearly three-quarters of people polled said that people immigrate to the United States for jobs and to improve their lives, and more than half said that the ability to immigrate is a “human right.” Multiple polls also show that the majority of people in the United States support protections for people who are trying to escape persecution and torture in their homelands. And most voters support access to asylum and believe that those in need of safety should be given a fair chance to defend their case before a judge.
4. One in six people in the United States workforce is an immigrant. In fact, immigrants participate in the labor force at a higher rate than the U.S.-born population. Immigrants are also more likely to start businesses than native-born U.S. citizens. Millions of people in the United States are employed by immigrant-founded and immigrant-owned companies.

The United States immigration system is cruel, dysfunctional, and misaligned with 21^st century realities. With your help, we can lessen its harm and build toward a future where people are treated with dignity and respect, no matter where they were born.