About WDA:

The Washington Defender Association (WDA) is the statewide support infrastructure for Washington’s public defense community. We serve over 1,600 members who are public defenders, investigators and other legal workers representing people facing the consequences of criminal legal system involvement. We are a small but mighty team guided by the belief that everyone belongs in the circle of human concern. We are dedicated to dismantling the barriers to belonging that burden all who are entangled in Washington State’s criminal legal system and disproportionately fall upon Black, Indigenous and People of Color and other marginalized groups, such as noncitizens, differently-abled people, and those with behavioral health challenges, substance use disorder and neurodivergence.

Our stated core values reflect our goals towards becoming an organization that meaningfully and tangibly integrates an anti-racist, anti-oppression framework into all aspects of our work.

The Job:

WDA staff currently work either remotely and/or in our Seattle office. Due to the current demand for providing up-to-date information to public defenders with noncitizen clients, primary responsibilities will include:

o Immigration Case Consultations: Deliver high-quality, timely, case-specific support in response to a high volume of assistance requests from defenders.
o Training: Provide webinar and in-person training to defenders, community partners, and other criminal legal system stakeholders.

Additional work may include:

o Defender Engagement: Cultivate relationships with public defenders and defender offices throughout Washington that:
o Ensure defender practices to provide effective assistance to achieve outcomes that avoid or mitigate immigration consequences.
o Identify emergent issues and collaborative response strategies; and
o Build capacity to leverage defender engagement toward local, state (and national) systemic changes in the criminal and immigration legal systems
o Resources: Develop practice advisories and other tools addressing immigration consequences of criminal convictions and criminal legal system involvement.
o Systems Advocacy: Engage with community partners and stakeholders to advance systems change advocacy on state and local issues regarding noncitizens who become involved in criminal legal systems; identify opportunities to integrate community partners into WDA advocacy efforts.
o Case Consultations Within WDA: Provide immigration law expertise in support of other projects at WDA.
o Race Equity Work and Other Organizational Evolution Efforts: Participate in WDA’s internal and external work to actualize our commitments to JustLead Washington’s Race Equity and Justice Initiative (REJI) framework and other projects focused on our growth and development.

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