For an immigrant in detention, legal representation can mean the difference between winning and losing their case — between staying with their family and being forced to return to a place that is no longer home. The Southern Poverty Law Center's Southeast Immigrant Freedom Initiative (SIFI) enlists and trains volunteer lawyers to assist with the SIFI's provision of free legal representation to detained immigrants facing deportation proceedings in the Southeast.

Right now, we’re representing parents who’ve been needlessly ripped apart from their children — many of them U.S. citizens — as a result of an indiscriminate enforcement regime that’s shattering communities across the country.

You can help. By joining SIFI at one of our offices in Georgia or Louisiana for a week-long shift as a volunteer on the ground, you will assist with our advocacy to protect the due process rights of individuals detained in these notoriously hostile detention centers and jurisdictions. For example, asylum grant rates nationally have hovered almost near 50% while those in Georgia's Lumpkin and Atlanta Immigration Courts have asylum grant rates near 10% or even less.

Volunteers will assist SIFI with several aspects of our advocacy and must feel comfortable using technology, including learning use of the SIFI’s case management system.

Potential volunteer tasks can include:
-conducting initial and follow-up interviews of individuals in immigrant detention,
-drafting legal research and/or legal filings,
-assisting with document collection internationally and domestically in support of SIFI’s legal advocacy,
-communicating with clients’ family and community members,
-coordinating letters of support to support legal filings, and
-any other tasks that will help further the SIFI's advocacy.

To learn more about SIFI, we encourage you to visit our website here: https://www.splcenter.org/our-issues/immigrant-justice/southeast-immigrant-freedom-initiative-0.