A Guide Through the Labyrinth: AILA Local Liaisons

This blog post is part of our series from the Member Experience Committee highlighting the ways AILA members can join in, build community, access resources, advocate, and enhance the overall AILA member experience.

The American Immigration Lawyers Association’s (AILA’s) website is a treasure trove of resources for immigration attorneys.  Our members are able to access everything from practice pointers, government liaison meeting minutes, well-being resources, how to find an AILA mentor, and so much more.  Nevertheless, as the chair of AILA National’s Member Experience Committee, I’d like to answer a question that I regularly hear our members ask, “How do I contact the local government agency offices?” By this they mean the offices for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) or Customs and Border Protection (CBP) or the immigration courts, known as the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR).

Imagine this: You are an AILA member. You received a Request for Evidence (RFE); it involves an unfamiliar local USCIS office.  You are an immigration attorney, and you know that every local office can have its own culture and ways of operation. How does this office handle things like RFEs? If it’s a short response, can you send a fax?  If you submitted a response several months ago, but have not received a reply, what would be the best way to communicate with the local office?  In my own experience, I recall sending an RFE response to the USCIS office in Los Angeles, via FedEx, and realizing that the office is in an extremely large government building that houses multiple government agencies.  How can I confirm that this RFE response even reached the Los Angeles office of USCIS? To get answers to these types of questions, I was able to connect with then-AILA Southern California’s USCIS local chapter liaison to advise on navigating my situation.  

Fortunately, with 39 chapters across the country and around the world, AILA chapter volunteers regularly contact and try to establish a working relationship with the local government offices on immigration issues.  Our local chapter volunteer efforts are especially important as we enter a new presidential Administration on January 20, 2025.

So, how does an AILA member find the AILA chapter liaison for a local government agency?  The AILA Group Directory is your new best friend!  As an AILA member, logged in to your My AILA account, you can access this webpage and then scroll down to “Search for Chapter Liaisons” and select the chapter and role.  In fact, in addition to USCIS, CBP, and EOIR, AILA chapters often have local liaison roles for other types of local government offices that touch on immigration issues, like your local Department of Motor Vehicles.

In addition to finding the AILA liaison for a local immigration-related agency, the AILA Group Directory page allows members to search for internal AILA groups such as AILA National Committee members, local AILA Chapter Officers, attorneys by federal court admittance, GMS international lawyers by jurisdiction, interest group, and sections. 

These directories are another way that AILA.org can save you time and frustration, while also clarifying the unknowns of local government office procedures. Knowing this, you can better serve your clients!

We hope you enjoyed this post on Think Immigration! We’re always looking for fresh perspectives and voices to join our community of contributors. If you’re an AILA member passionate about immigration and have insights, stories, or expertise to share, we invite you to write for us. Visit our FAQs to learn more about how you can contribute to the conversation and make sure you bookmark our Think Immigration page so you don’t miss any blog posts.