Nebraska Appleseed:

This manual guides volunteer lawyers and non-lawyer practitioners through important financial and family rights threatened by the deportation process, including final paychecks, bank accounts, car and home ownership, government benefits, child custody, and others. “Protecting Assets” provides easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions to help immigrants protect their financial assets and family relationships.

The U.S. deported more than 358,000 immigrants in 2008, the sixth consecutive year of record-high deportations. Whether or not someone has a right to stay in the U.S., or an ability to enforce that right, he or she is entitled to the final paycheck, and is not by law stripped of all financial rights or child custody. But in fact, persons being deported not only often lose their U.S. community and family security, but they also lose the resources they have built up and to which they are entitled. Produced at the request of community advocates with the help of pro bono counsel from Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, DLA Piper and others, and funded in part by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, this manual will help volunteers and nonprofit advocates – including non-lawyers – minimize the deprivations of rights and assets that deportation poses.  

Consistent with other work produced through Appleseed’s Financial Access and Asset Building Program, the manual takes a practical, constructive approach to helping vulnerable people build assets and security while protecting and enforcing rights. Through effective management of the financial fall-out and child custody arrangements, immigrant families facing deportation should have more time to focus on the other legal and personal challenges of deportation.

“Protecting Assets” is the first in a series of reports from Appleseed on “Protecting Your Pocketbook:  Financial Practices and Policies for American Communities.”  Watch our website for additional reports in this series.