EXECUTIVE AND LEGISLATIVE

U.S. Congress

Visitors can track the progress of bills introduced in the current session, access the Congressional Record, and view committee reports.  Also contains searchable archives of past sessions.  Download complete text of statutes and bills.

White House

The official White House site.  Includes instructions on sending e-mail to the president and vice president.

ADMINISTRATIVE AGENCIES

Executive Office for Immigration Review

View descriptions of EOIR units, including the Board of Immigration Appeals, Office of the Chief Immigration Judge, and Office of the Chief Administrative Hearing Officer.  Complete text of some BIA decisions are available for downloading.

Food and Nutrition Service (USDA)

Contains links to official descriptions of eligibility and benefits for Women, Infants & Children (WIC) and Food Stamps programs.

G.P.O. Access

Maintained by the Government Printing Office.  Contains searchable databases covering the Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, Public Laws, and more.

Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices

The Office of Special Counsel (OSC) is a component of the Civil Rights Division, U.S. Department of Justice. It is responsible for ensuring that U.S. workers, including legal immigrants, are not subject to employment discrimination based upon citizenship or immigration status and national origin, with respect to hiring, firing, or recruitment of referral for a fee. It also works to ensure that workers are not subject to discrimination during the employment eligibility verification (Form I-9) process. Download useful fact sheets, forms, and multi-lingual outreach material.

Social Security Administration

Access policy papers prepared by SSA's Office of Policy as well as Social Security laws and regulations.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)

The BCIS is the component in the Department of Homeland Security responsible for the immigration service functions previously handled by the former Immigration and Naturalization Service.
   Provides information about the transition of immigration service and benefits functions to the BCIS. On-line service and benefit functions previously found on the INS's Web site can be accessed here.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)

Housed in the Directorate of Border and Transportation Security Directorate, Department of Homeland Security, the CBP is responsible for border enforcement and inspection functions at ports of entry into the U.S. The CBP unifies border enforcement and inspection duties conducted by the U.S. Customs Service, the former Immigration and Naturalization Service, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, and the U.S. Border Patrol.
   Provides information about the CBP's functions, and links to the Customs Service, Border Patrol, and the Animal and and Plant Health Inspection Service Web sites.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

Housed in the the Directorate of Border and Transportation Security, Department of Homeland Security, the ICE is responsible for the enforcement of immigration and customs laws within the U.S., the protection of specified federal buildings, and air and marine enforcement. The ICE combines border and security functions previously handled by the U.S. Customs Service, Federal Protective Service, and former Immigration and Naturalization Service.
   Provides information about the agency's three principal areas of responsibility (immigration enforcement, customs enforcement, and federal protective service).

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Contains links to HHS agencies, including Administration for Children and Families and Health Care Financing Administration.  Includes instructions on sending emails to the secretary of HHS.

CALIFORNIA: EXECUTIVE AND LEGISLATIVE

California Assembly

Download full text of bills, resolutions, and constitutional amendments, and their history, status, votes, and veto messages.  Visitors can also identify the assemblyperson representing their district.

California
Senate

Contains links to all major legislative activities including searching for and subscribing to a service allowing users to track progress of legislation.

Office of the Governor

Office of the Governor's official web site.

Legislative Analyst

View nonpartisan analyses of major policy issues and proposals being debated by the Legislature.

State of California Home Page

State's official site.  Contains index of links to all California agencies that maintain web sites.

CALIFORNIA: ADMINISTRATIVE AGENCIES

Office of Administrative Law

Search for current or pending regulations.

Department of Health Care Services

DHCS finances and administers individual health care service delivery programs, including the California Medical Assistance Program (Medi-Cal).

Department of Public Health

Focuses on public health and health care financing to create a more effective public health infrastructure in California.

Healthy Families

View Healthy Families program and eligibility information.

Secretary of State

Download voter registration forms in either English or Spanish, and materials prepared by the Secretary of State in connection with recent and upcoming state-wide elections.

Department of Social Services

Search for All County Letters and other social service (e.g., CalWORKs, Food Stamps) program information.

NATIONAL

American Civil Liberties Union, Immigrants' Rights Project

Provides access to ACLU materials relating to immigration, including "Briefing Papers" and position statements.  Link to an archive of materials presented to Congress via correspondence or in-person testimony.

Asian American Justice Center

Learn about the work of the only national legal advocacy organization that works to protect and advance the civil rights of Asian Pacific Americans.

Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum

View current and past issues of APIAHF's Policy Updates.  Contains background information for the group's projects, including the API Health Information Network, and Asian and Pacific Islanders' California Action Network.

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

Well organized site that contains an extensive selection of CBPP reports drawn from all the areas of their expertise in policy issues affecting low- and moderate income persons.  Most documents are downloadable in their entirety as either web files (HTML) or portable document format files (PDF).

Center for Law and Social Policy

Download the past two issues of CLASP Update (reports on welfare reform developments).  Extensive Publications Library contains complete text of CLASP reports on TANF, Child Care and Support, Legal Services for the Poor, and other topics.

Children's Defense Fund

Contains links to CDF reports and analyses of issues relating to the impact of poverty on children.

Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse (Washington Univ., St. Louis, MO)

Download documents relating to civil rights cases, particularly injunctive and class-action cases.  The immigration portion of the collection focuses on relatively recent class actions and cases involving large numbers of plaintiffs -- e.g., suits about immigration detention conditions, civil rights violations during workplace raids, allegations of RICO violations by employers of undocumented workers.

Food Research Action Center

View FRAC's descriptions of federal food programs (Food Stamps, WIC, School Breakfast Program, National School Lunch Program).  Contains statistical profiles regarding hunger, poverty, and unemployment rate data for all 50 states.

IAN is a free national online network that supports legal advocates working on behalf of immigrants' rights.  Resources available: Library, Podcasts, Calendar, Agency Watch, Listservs, Videos, Alerts, Webinars, News, Member Search.

IPC is the research arm of the American Immigration Law Foundation (AILF). IPC was established in 2003 with the mission to provide policymakers, academics, the media, and the general public with access to accurate information about the effects of immigration on the U.S. economy and society.

Interfaith Worker Justice calls upon religious values in order to educate, organize, and mobilize the religious community in the U.S. on issues and campaigns that will improve wages, benefits, and working conditions for workers, especially low-wage workers.

Migration Policy Institute

MPI is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit think tank in Washington, DC dedicated to analysis of the movement of people worldwide.

National Center for Law and Economic Justice

NCLEJ uses a coordinated strategy of impact litigation, policy analysis and advocacy, and support for low-income grass-roots groups to: uphold the right to fair treatment; protect the civil rights of low-income people; and support community empowerment.

National Center for Youth Law

Download selected NCYL analyses and reports examining health, child welfare, public benefits, and other issues in PDF format.

National Council of La Raza

The official web site of the nation's largest constituency-based Hispanic organization that works to reduce poverty and discrimination, and improve life opportunities for all Hispanic Americans.  Contains capsule descriptions of major policy issues affecting Hispanics and NCLR's position on them.

National Employment Law Project

Download fact sheets and issue briefs addressing NELP's major project areas: Immigrant Worker Project, Nonstandard Worker Project, Unemployment Insurance Safety Net Project, Welfare & Low-Wage Worker Project, and Work & Family Project.

National Health Law Program

Download NHeLP analyses examining the Balanced Budget Act, Medicaid, Immigration, Managed Care, and State & Local Health Care.  Contains extensive California-specific links to resources useful to health care advocates.

National Immigration Forum

Contains NIF's analyses of current issues in immigration as well as "Immigration Facts," a series of short papers featuring useful statistical and historical information relating to topics such as "The A,B,Cs of U.S. Immigration," "Immigration Chronology," "Facts on Immigrants and Public Benefits," and more.

National Lawyers Guild, National Immigration Project

Features a "Brief Bank Index," a collection of capsule descriptions of immigration law cases currently indexed by case name, with a subject index soon to follow.  The complete text of these briefs can be ordered from NIP.

National Legal Aid and Defender Association

Contains useful information for NLADA members, including NLADA's training calendar, access to Civil Brief (NLADA's electronic newsletter), and an extensive collection of materials examining Phillips v. Washington Legal Foundation, the Supreme Court case regarding the use of IOLTA funds.

National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights

Offers extensive coverage of issues relating to INS raids and the militarization of the border.  Download the past five issues of the INS Raids Bulletin, NNIRR's bi-monthly newsletter covering INS actions throughout the nation.  Also available in Spanish.

National Senior Citizens Law Center

Download selected articles and other materials addressing substantive areas on which NSCLC works, including Social Security/SSI, Medicaid, Balanced Budget Act of 1997, and others.

Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law

Visitors can register for access to the Center's Poverty Law Library, which contains over 500,000 case documents from over 50,000 cases filed by poverty law advocates for over 25 years.  View selected articles from recent Clearinghouse Review issues.  Join the Center's on-line discussion forums covering topics such as "Teens and TANF," "Poverty Law," "Technology and Legal Research" and more.

Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse

TRAC Immigration is "your source for comprehensive, independent and nonpartisan information about U.S. federal immigration enforcement."

Urban Institute

Offers a generous selection of Policy Briefs and Occasional Reports for downloading. Visitors can also view the products of UI's "Assessing the New Federalism" project, including its on-line database of statistics detailing information on the fifty states and District of Columbia, in areas such as income security, health, child well-being, and social services.

CALIFORNIA

California Budget Project

The CBP provides non-partisan analyses of state tax and budget policies affecting low- and middle income Californians, the impact of welfare reform at the state and local levels, and implications of federal policy decisions on California.  Site contains an extensive selection of CBP Budget Briefs published in the last three years, and Budget Watch, CBP's bi-monthly newsletter.

California Center for Health Improvement

The CCHI is a nonprofit health policy research institute that focuses on prevention-oriented methods to improve public health.  Site features "Policy PROFILES," a searchable database of policy ideas organized by health care, education, economic vitality, safety, and environment.

California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation

Contains compendium of media pieces regarding guest workers as well as links to state and federal appellate court decisions.

Children Now

Combining policy analysis with effective outreach strategies, Children Now works to generate positive change on behalf of all children, particularly those who are poor or at risk.   Visitors can sign up to receive Internet Update, the group's free monthly newsletter transmitted via e-mail.

Legal Services of Northern California

Features a comprehensive index of legal research materials available on the web, including both California and federal statutes, regulations, and case law.  An excellent resource for poverty law advocates.

Public Interest Clearinghouse

Contains a library of resource materials prepared by poverty law agencies throughout California, organized by topics like "Immigration Law," "SSI Terminations," "Homelessness and Housing," "Welfare Reform," and more.  Also features an on-line directory of California legal services programs.

Finding America: Dispatches on the New Immigrant Experience

New York Immigration Coalition blog on the occasion of a road trip to and from the 2008 political party conventions, documenting the environment that exists for immigrants in the U.S.

California Immigrant Policy Center Blog

"A place where you can learn about important issues affecting the state's immigrants and all California residents."

Coloradans For Immigrant Rights

"This blog is written collectively by volunteer members of Coloradans for Immigrant Rights, a project of AFSC."

Western MA Coalition for Immigrant & Worker Rights

"A group of organizations and community members who advocate, educate, organize, and mobilize to protect the Human, Civil, and Constitutional Rights of all workers and residents in our communities."

DREAM Act - Texas

"An ongoing discussion on the DREAM ACT and other immigration issues."

A DREAM Deferred

"We are students from diverse backgrounds who have come together from across the United States to share our stories, experiences, voices and support for the DREAM Act and other immigration issues pertinent to our lives."

ImmigrationProf Blog

"A Member of the Law Professor Blogs Network"

The Sanctuary

"100% Pro-Migrant"

Standing FIRM

"The Fair Immigration Reform Movement is a national coalition of grassroots organizations fighting for immigrant rights at the local, state and federal level. To learn more about our coalition, visit www.fairimmigration.org."

An EXTENSIVE, LINKED LIST of blogs is available on the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights website's homepage (left-hand column, under the title "Immigration Blogs").