The Florence Project

The Florence Project is a nonprofit legal service organization that provides free legal services to men, women and children detained by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), formerly known as the INS. Although the government assists indigent criminal defendants and civil litigants through public defenders and legal aid attorneys, it does not provide attorneys for people facing deportation charges. As a result, 90 percent of the detained people go unrepresented due to poverty. The Florence Project strives to address this inequity both locally and nationally.

Locally Active

The Florence Project is dedicated to providing free legal care to 1,900 people detained at any given time in remote detention facilities in Florence and Eloy, Arizona. This is an estimated 10 percent of the total ICE detained population nationwide. We provide a full range of services to detained people including live pre-hearing rights presentations; confidential individual interviews; in depth counseling and case preparation for pro se clients; direct representation in clients’ bond hearings and meritorious claims for relief from removal; and referral for pro bono representation.

Nationally Recognized

The Florence Project services as a resource development center for legal service “best practices” and “know your rights” materials. It serves as a training and consultation center for directors and staff from legal service projects serving ICE-detained individuals nationwide.

The former INS, Bar associations, US Senate, the US Department of Justice, The US Commission on Immigration Reform, the American Immigration Lawyers Association and the National Lawyers Guild have all recognized the Florence Project’s local and national contribution to people in detention and its mission to building a more just and efficient judicial system.

History

The Florence Project was created in 1989 in response to a plea from Immigration Judge John J. McCarrick. Judge McCarrick, concerned that indigent people in removal proceedings were in danger of having their constitutional and statutory rights disregarded, urged Phoenix area attorneys to fill the gap in representation left by the absence of a public defender system in immigration proceedings. To remedy this crisis in representation, Attorney Chris Brelje, supported and encouraged by his law firm Lewis and Roca, spent a year establishing the project.

Although originally called the Florence Asylum Project, the organization changed its name to the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project (FIRRP) to reflect the range of legal issues facing detained immigrants. With services first in Florence, FIRRP expanded its reach to include legal services first at the Eloy Detention Center in 1998, then in Phoenix and Globe for detained children in late 2000. In January 2001 the Integrated Social Services Program was added to address the diverse mental health and social needs of people FIRRP serves.