The Immigration Court Observation Program (ICOP) of the National Lawyers Guild San Francisco Chapter seeks to bring greater transparency and accountability to immigration court by training volunteers to attend and observe immigration court hearings and document any violations of immigrants’ due process rights.

This process of observing and documenting immigration court hearings allows advocates to keep pressure on judges to hold them accountable, makes court hearings more transparent, and helps identify any needs and trends in immigration court that impact immigrants’ due process rights. This information is then shared with immigrant rights advocates and activists to help plan long-term strategies to address systemic problems within immigration court.