Students in the SLS Immigrants’ Rights Clinic (IRC), including Noelle Smith, JD ’21, Claire Fieldman, JD ’22, Drew Alvarez, JD ’21, and Raven Quesenberry, JD ’22, published a new toolkit for criminal defenders and their clients who are required to participate in the Institutional Hearing Program (IHP), run by the DHS, which initiates deportation proceedings in state and federal prisons against noncitizens who are still serving time for criminal convictions. • Developed in partnership with the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, the toolkit offers a resource for both criminal defense attorneys and their clients, with vital information that is not readily available, including IHP program locations in California’s federal and state prisons, answers to commonly asked questions, and an overview of the immigration process and the rights that noncitizens have as they go through these proceedings. • The project came about after a meeting with a criminal defense attorney who was looking for IHP prison sites. “She said that there wasn’t a way to know which prisons were designed as IHP sites, so clients didn’t know if they were being sentenced to a facility with this program. That conversation was a wake-up call to the urgent need to close this information gap,” says Lisa Weissman-Ward, IRC supervising attorney, who explains that many of the individuals facing the IHP program have claims against deportation. She offers the example of those who fled persecution and abusive relationships, and may be eligible for relief under asylum and other humanitarian protections. The toolkit offers critical information for the entire criminal defense bar—attorneys who are usually the last legal point of contact for this group of people. SL