Immigrants' Rights

ACLU of Virginia has been working for more than fifty years to make liberty, justice, equity, inclusion, and dignity a reality for all people in the Commonwealth – regardless of their immigration status.

That’s why we launched a new Immigrants’ Rights Project in 2023. Since then, we’ve worked with brave, determined partners and clients on the ground to secure key rights for immigrants who call the Commonwealth home:

• We sued ICE in a first-of-its-kind class-action lawsuit and won the release of dozens of immigrants whom the agency was arbitrarily detaining even after they had won their immigration cases, paving the way for the release of more immigrants in the future
• We got a Know Your Rights resource into the hands of immigrant communities across the Commonwealth with instructions for what to do when faced with law enforcement or ICE
• We defended an immigrant survivor of domestic abuse, ensuring she has a pathway to citizenship through a special visa for survivors of crime, and requiring Roanoke Police Department to certify relief for all qualifying noncitizen survivors going forward

People who are immigrants often face dire consequences and are denied their fundamental rights if they come into contact with law enforcement, because many local police departments coordinate with federal agencies. Even without being accused of a crime, people can be held in immigration detention facilities in conditions identical to prisons. And instead of being released to their families and communities after an arrest, they're often transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention and fast-tracked for deportation.

We have a long way to go, and small changes won’t cut it. We need to eliminate abusive and dangerous conditions at immigration detention centers and end the jail-to-deportation pipeline in Virginia before the Commonwealth can truly be safe for us all.

MAKE A DONATION or VOLUNTEER today to protect immigrants who call Virginia home.