Acacia Center for Justice

The legal access & orientation programs (lao) deliver legal orientations and self-help workshops about immigration court procedures to adults, adult caregivers of children, and families in dhs custody and in removal proceedings to help them better understand what to expect in court. These programs are comprised of:- legal orientation program, delivering legal orientations and self-help workshops about immigration court procedures to adult individuals in dhs custody to help them prepare to represent themselves in immigration court;- legal orientation program for custodians of unaccompanied children, providing legal orientation presentations to adult caregivers (custodians/sponsors) of non-detained unaccompanied children in eoir removal proceedings;- immigration court helpdesk, delivering legal orientations and self-help workshops to non-detained individuals in removal proceedings to help them better understand what to expect in immigration court and prepare to represent themselves; and- family group legal orientation program, providing legal orientation presentations and self-help workshops to family groups in removal proceedings to help them better understand what to expect in court and prepare to represent themselves.

Legal representation programs (lr) provide legal counsel to adults and children in various contexts. These programs are comprised of:- national qualified representative program, providing qualified representatives (attorneys and others accredited to provide legal defense) in immigration court to unrepresented detained adults who are found by an immigration judge to be mentally incompetent to represent themselves in immigration proceedings;- children's counsel initiative, providing legal representation to children who are in immigration proceedings in designated immigration court locations; - unaccompanied children program, providing know your rights presentations and legal screenings to all children in orr custody, as well as representation to children in and released from orr custody; and- litigation support fund, providing a source of funding to the legal cases of unaccompanied children who are placed in facilities and locations outside of the existing network of legal service providers and to challenge custody determinations and other strategic litigation advocacy.