“CILA is an excellent source of training and technical assistance. CILA staff are experts in children’s immigration law. Our attorneys, social worker, and staff constantly contact CILA with questions and CILA promptly responds. I encourage all our staff to participate in CILA’s working groups and to use CILA’s resources. I especially encourage new staff to take CILA’s core curriculum and watch recorded and live webinars as part of the onboarding process. DMRS is deeply grateful for the support of CILA and the ABA.”
Jacob Wedemeyer
"CILA has quickly become an indispensable resource for RAICES and other Texas legal providers that serve unaccompanied child migrants. The legal landscape with respect to this population is constantly in flux; new challenges and opportunities demand fast and nimble responses.”
Ashley Walker
"CILA is the first place I direct my students to when handling a child's case. Their resources on everything from child interviewing to the basics of child asylum and special immigrant juvenile status are par to none."
Elissa Steglich
“CILA has provided our firm the tools necessary to adequately and effectively represent our clients. Through CILA’s guidance, we have been able to help migrant children find refuge in the United States to give them the opportunity to achieve the American dream!”
Susana Hart
"CILA is an amazing support to the work we do with our clients. The trainings that have been offered and the tools they have created through the Social Work Program have been very valuable to the team. Marissa and Shalom are great. They have been available to us to answer any social work related questions we've had and have guided us to other resources when needed. The Children's Immigration Social Services Working Group gives us an opportunity to build community and support each other. Thank you for all you do for us and our clients!"
Lilia Garcia
“CILA is a tremendous training resource for all attorneys ranging in experience, providing introductory training as well as specialized up to date technical assistance with complex and changing laws. Recognizing that advocates benefit from supporting each other, CILA also created a large network of lawyers across the state by organizing platforms for information sharing and meaningful collaboration to solve problems. CILA’s presence has greatly helped me provide the best advocacy for our clients. Their encouraging legal community has strengthened my knowledge and confidence in the courtroom, and given me the support to avoid burnout.”
Kate Wegener
"As Legal Services Director of Immigrant Defenders Law Center's Children's Representation Project, I lead a large and growing team of attorneys and advocates providing key legal services to unaccompanied children throughout California. We often use CILA's excellent resources in training and onboarding new staff, as well as ensuring existing staff are up to date on trends and changes in law."
Mickey Donovan-Kaloust
“The CILA-NITA training “Advocacy in Immigration Matters” was an incredible training offered by expert trial attorney faculty members who gave tons of tips and demonstrations to participants and then coached us through hands-on practice of those essential trial advocacy skills such as direct and cross examination, the use of expert witnesses and exhibits, common objections, etc. I can hands-down say that this was the best legal skill-based training I have ever attended. I am grateful for CILA for hosting this training and giving advocates like me the opportunity to study with such an amazing faculty of practitioners from NITA!”
Alysa Medina
“The staff at CILA are brilliant, creative, responsive, and caring. They have connected me with attorneys from around the country who have helped me troubleshoot both substantive issues and the growing pains associated with a fledgling pro bono program. Their Pro Bono Matters platform is the only pro bono attorney recruiting mechanism we use because the success we’ve had placing cases through their platform far outpaces the results of all the other platforms we’ve tried, combined. CILA’s written resources have been a lifeline not only for the pro bono attorneys who I mentor, but for our own staff attorneys who are new to the practice. I appreciate that CILA listens to what we need and turns those requests into useful, digestible, insightful guides like the Pro Bono Guide and the recently published Florida-specific SIJS Guide.”
Sarah Hanners
“I have worked with ABA-CILA since its inception. Their attorneys are experts and fill a niche supporting our unaccompanied child clients in a myriad of ways. They are the cog in the wheel for all the various nonprofits and private attorneys working with this vulnerable population serving as a repository of current experiences and strategy gleaned from their working groups. By staying current on the ever-changing landscape of immigration policies, cases and regulations, they are able to run trainings to support our work and have provided invaluable technical assistance. Children are now safe because of the work of ABA-CILA.”
Katherine McIlroy Shoebotham
“CILA has been an immense support to me as I navigate complex and novel case patterns while representing Unaccompanied Minors in their removal proceedings. It feels almost magical: I can send an email asking several specific questions about a particular case, and a few days later, I receive a thorough and well-thought-out response, that both answers my questions and points to further areas of inquiry. CILA's existence means that on-the-ground practitioners can tap into a broad scope of knowledge and experience, thereby improving the quality of representation given to their clients, and raising the standard of representation of Unaccompanied Minors as a whole.”
Hensleigh Crowell
"The ABA Commission on Immigration is proud to partner with CILA to create resources that educate pro bono professionals and volunteers working on immigration matters. Our collaborative projects in 2024 include a comprehensive toolkit on how to implement legal clinics, innovative resources on creative models for pro bono projects, and our annual Pro Bono Symposium. Through our combined efforts, we are able to enhance the capabilities of both organizations and amplify our impact within our networks.”
Stephanie Baez
“At ProBAR, we rely on CILA's expertise in unaccompanied children to provide not only a baseline foundation of knowledge for our lawyers and advocates, but to partner with us to solve complex issues facing our youth clients. Whether it's CILA's Boot Camp—a hands-on training for any advocate seeking a comprehensive overview of trauma-informed legal services for migrant youth—or technical assistance on a nuanced SIJS matter in a Texas court, we know that we can rely on CILA as a partner to help us be excellent advocates for the children we serve.”