Bear Witness at Immigration Court

Court Watch is a volunteer program founded in 2007 to observe and bear witness at detained immigrants’ hearings in Chicago. While Illinois passed legislation that banned immigrant detention within our state beginning in 2022, deportation cases are still processed in the Chicago Immigration Court nearly every weekday for immigrants - including Illinois residents - who are jailed in Wisconsin, Indiana, Kentucky, and other states.

 Court Watch volunteers attend as many of these hearings as possible (most hearings are currently conducted online via Webex). We partner with legal organizations and pro bono attorneys, highlighting problems we observe and cases where unrepresented detainees are in need of legal help. 

 If you're interested, simply send an email as instructed at https://www.icirr.org/fsn. You’ll hear back from Jack Lloyd, who runs the program, setting up a Zoom information session. If you’re still interested, you will sign up to be a trainee court watcher during a session that Jack is also watching. As you’re watching, you’ll chat with Jack with any questions. You can do this more than once if you feel you need more training.