Social Worker, Immigration Practice

The Center for Family Representation Inc. (CFR) is an award-winning, innovative law and policy organization that serves primarily Black and Brown families and youth in Queens, Manhattan, and the Bronx with an interdisciplinary legal defense model that serves more than 2400 clients every year. In 2024, CFR will expand our family defense practice to Richmond County. CFR was originally founded in 2002 to dramatically change the trajectory of indigent parents being prosecuted by the City’s Administration for Children’s Services (ACS). Our goal is to defend and protect our clients’ rights, reduce the harm of family separation and prevent or minimize the time any child spends in the foster system.

CFR provides interdisciplinary family defense with a model that was unique at our founding and that is now being replicated nationally: we assign every client an attorney and a social work staff member, and teams have the support of parent advocates, who are parents with direct personal experience of being investigated and prosecuted by ACS. CFR was the first agency in the country to integrate parents with lived experience into legal teams and now has 7 parent advocates working in all three of our family defense locations. CFR’s Community Advocacy Project represents parents during a child protective investigation (to avoid court involvement where possible) and assists parents in clearing their names from state maltreatment records.

As an agency committed to securing justice for families, we built the Youth Defense practice (YDP) to defend youth at risk of family separation through incarceration. YDP uses the same interdisciplinary model to represent youth being prosecuted in Queens and Manhattan in Supreme Court Youth Parts, during Probation Adjustment and in Delinquency proceedings in Family Court. CFR’s Home for Good program provides legal and social work services to CFR clients in immigration, civil legal services and criminal defense matters, to afford clients an efficient and well-coordinated one-stop solution to a range of issues that threaten family stability. 

Recognized as experts in our fields, we annually train over 500 practitioners in the city, state and around the country on strategies to promote family preservation and interdisciplinary representation, and we provide community based “Know Your Rights” presentations to parents, youth and service providers. We advocate at the city, state and national level for policies that reduce the harm of family separation, and promote parent engagement and justice for youth and families.

CFR's Immigration Team has an immediate opening for a Social Worker. 

Primary responsibilities will include:

• Work with CFR’s immigration team to conduct trauma-informed intakes and meetings, assess needs and goals, provide high quality legal defense against family separation and removal and obtain immigration relief and/or benefits for non-citizen clients.
• In collaboration with our CFR Policy unit, other stakeholders and agencies, advocate against harmful anti-immigrant local/state/federal policies or practices;
• Provide direct social work support and advocacy to clients, refer clients to supportive services that are culturally and linguistically appropriate, facilitate clients’ attendance at ICE check-ins and other appointments and work closely with services providers (i.e. therapist, case managers, case planners, etc.) to create networks of support and gather evidence in support of clients’ cases;
• Conduct biopsychosocial evaluations and draft letters of support for clients to achieve positive outcomes with the immigration courts, USCIS, the Administration for Children’s Services and other agencies;
• Participate in team meetings as well as administrative meetings within CFR and
• Keep updated client legal notes and timely enter data in CFR’s database.

Social Workers receive supervision from Social Work Supervisors and are expected to keep case data and client legal notes up to date. Social Workers at CFR can expect intensive, interdisciplinary training on CFR's Cornerstone Advocacy model, the immigration system, trauma-informed client interviewing, drafting client letters of support and other critical experiences and skills. Professional development opportunities for Social Workers may include building skills to eventually supervise MSW interns, conduct trainings and participate in CFR's policy initiatives. Objectives of the team include supporting non-citizen families by preventing removal, obtaining immigration relief, accessing benefits and seeking client opportunities.

Starting salaries (0 years of experience):

Social Worker (unlicensed): $65,100

Social Worker (licensed): $71,400

• Applicants must have an LMSW or have an MSW degree and be eligible and willing to become licensed within ten months of hire. 
• Prior experience advocating for or supporting non-citizens is preferred.
• Fluency in Spanish is required.
• Fluency in French, or Haitian Creole is preferred. 
• Experience with immigration, public benefits, education, housing or the family policing system is all desirable.
• Individuals who apply should be able to demonstrate strong interpersonal and communication skills, a commitment to interdisciplinary representation of non-citizen parents and families in immigration proceedings and a desire to share in both the exhilaration and challenges of a growing endeavor.