The Immigration Center for Women and Children (ICWC) is a non-profit legal organization providing free and affordable immigration services to underrepresented immigrants in California and Nevada. ICWC strives to provide security and stability for children who are abused, abandoned or neglected and for immigrants who are survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault and other violent crimes.
In 1994, Congress passed the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), creating special routes to immigration status for certain battered non-citizens.
In 2000, Congress passed a law known as the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act (VTVPA), which created two categories of non-immigrant visas, U visa for victims of certain crimes and T visas for victims of trafficking.
In 1990, Congress enacted federal law to assist certain undocumented children in obtaining lawful permanent residence through a special immigrant visa category known as Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS).
Asylum helps individuals who come the U.S. seeking protection because they have suffered persecution or fear that they will suffer persecution in their home country due to race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.
ICWC provides legal orientations for custodians of Unaccompanied Children who are released from the Office of Refugee and Resettlement (ORR) custody.
The Immigration Court Helpdesk (ICH) is a court-based legal education program for non-detained noncitizens in immigration court proceedings in San Francisco.
ICWC has an interdisciplinary practice of partnering social workers and case managers with the legal team for our work with unaccompanied youth who have fled abuse and persecution in their home countries.
