Create a “Know Your Rights” guide for disabled immigrants and their families.

What legal protections exist for people with disabilities during immigration enforcement, detention, and court proceedings?

Federal law requires that immigration enforcement agencies provide reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities. But, in practice, these protections are often ignored. Immigrants in detention centers have been denied access to their medications, their mobility aids, communication devices, and sign language interpreters. And people who have been found incompetent to represent themselves in court have been deported without representation.

A guide that identifies the legal protections that do exist, including Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, portions of the ADA, and ICE’s own detention standards, can be useful to individuals with disabilities and their families. But, even more important is information about how to request accommodations and what they can do if those requests are denied.

This package is for immigrants and their families, caregivers, and other advocates who need information about disability-related rights during immigration proceedings.

The guide should be:

• About 1,000-2,500 words
• Written in clear, plain language, at about an 8th-grade reading level
• Organized so that someone in a crisis can find what they need quickly
• Accurate about what the law says without overpromising what it delivers in practice
• Clear that this is not legal advice, and should recommend that readers seek an attorney for more information

Topics to cover should include (but are not limited to):

• Federal laws protect disabled people during ICE encounters, immigration detention, and immigration court
• What “reasonable accommodations” means in this context
• How to request accommodations
• What to do when accommodations are denied
• Where to get legal help

Images: You are welcome to use images in the guide, but if you do so, only use images you create or ones that do not require attribution. If using stock icons or illustrations, use sources like Unsplash, Pexels, Pixabay, or Freepik. MFU has a paid Freepik account, so feel free to reach out to your handler if you need premium assets. In accordance with MFU policy, if you use any AI-generated images, you need to include a disclaimer.

Footer: Include the MFU logo in the footer and a link to the homepage (www.myflyinguniversity.org). Optionally, include your name or alias as the author.

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Essential skills:

• Ability to read and synthesize legal information
• Ability to write clearly at an accessible reading level

NOT required:

• Law degree or legal expertise
• Immigration law experience
• Advanced graphic design skills

You are welcome to use these sources to help you get started. Please note that some are legal analyses, while others are advocacy resources:

• DREDF — Immigrant Rights are Disability Rights: A large collection of advocacy resources related to the intersection of disability and immigration enforcement.
• Fox & Robertson — Rights of Immigration Detainees with Disabilities: A concise legal guide covering Section 504 and ADA protections for people in immigration detention, including specific examples of accommodations and the key legal citations.
• Human Rights First — “You Suffer A Lot”: A report that documents the barriers disabled immigrants face in immigration court.
• Center for American Progress — Crossing the Border: How Disability Civil Rights Protections Can Include Disabled Asylum-Seekers: A deep analysis of how the ADA and Section 504 apply (and don’t apply) in immigration contexts.
• ICE Disability Accommodation Standards (PDF): ICE’s own published standards for disability identification, assessment, and accommodation in detention facilities.
• Human Rights Watch — Deportation by Default: A comprehensive report on how the immigration system fails people with mental disabilities, including indefinite detention and unfair hearings.
• The Independent: “I’m autistic and have a brain injury. ICE dragged me from my car anyway. Then my nightmare really began”: A first-person account from Aliya Rahman, a US citizen with autism and a traumatic brain injury who was dragged from her car by ICE agents in Minneapolis, denied accommodations and medical care during detention, and mocked for her disability.

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For general questions, you can message your handler through your dashboard, contact @Owlett on Discord, or email info@myflyinguniversity.org.

If you have an idea for a different approach to all or part of this mission, please feel free to reach out before you get started!

• Your guide is about 1,000-2,500 words.
• Your guide accurately describes the major legal protections available to disabled people in immigration proceedings.
• Your guide is written in plain language at approximately an 8th-grade reading level.
• Your guide is organized for quick reference (not structured like an essay).
• Any images you used are properly sourced.
• Your guide includes contact information or links to organizations that can provide legal help.
• Your guide includes a clear disclaimer that it is not legal advice.
• You’ve included the MFU logo and link in the footer.

What to submit (from your MFU dashboard):

• Submit the guide as a Google Doc, Word document, or PDF via your operative dashboard.

There is no hard deadline for this mission, but you will need to provide a status update once a week on your MFU dashboard.