Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network

The Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network (RMIAN) is a nonprofit organization in Denver, Colorado dedicated to providing legal information and representation to non-citizens detained by the Department of Homeland Security. Although the government provides public defenders and legal aid attorneys to indigent criminal defendants and civil litigants, individuals in deportation proceedings have no access to legal representation unless they have money to hire a private attorney.  As a result, 85 percent of the people detained at the immigration detention facility in Aurora, Colorado go unrepresented, primarily due to poverty.

In September 2005, RMIAN initiated a Children’s Program to serve unaccompanied, abused, and abandoned non-citizen children throughout Colorado.  The Children’s Program works extensively with social services caseworkers, juvenile court officials, and local juvenile detention facilities to identify immigration relief and facilitate free legal representation for children.

RMIAN seeks volunteer attorneys to represent non-citizen men, women, and children in immigration removal proceedings.  RMIAN staff members conduct preliminary research, screen cases and write referral memorandums.  Each volunteer attorney will be provided with an experienced immigration practitioner to serve as a mentor for the case.  RMIAN’s referrals include cases of United States citizens erroneously detained by immigration authorities; survivors of domestic violence whose abusers refused to file immigration papers for them but who are eligible to remain in the U.S.; refugees and asylum-seekers who are fleeing persecution in their countries; unaccompanied, abused, and abandoned non-citizen children; and long-time lawful permanent residents who have committed minor crimes but are eligible for a one-time waiver of their deportation if they can show certain equities.

For more information please contact Mekela Goehring at (303) 433-2812 or mgoehring@rmian.org or visit our website at www.rmian.org