30th Anniversary of the National Immigration Law Center

National Immigration Law Center (http://www.nilc.org)
Thirty Years of Trailblazing for Immigrants' Rights

The National Immigration Law Center (NILC) works to promote and advance the rights of low-income immigrants and their families. Established in 1979 as a project of the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, NILC has grown to a staff of nearly 30 people dedicated to ensuring that immigrants — regardless of their income and immigration status — can work free from exploitation, adequately support their families, and contribute their full potential to the communities in which they live and work.

Headquartered in Los Angeles, NILC maintains a satellite office in Washington, DC, and has staff in Oakland, CA, Boise, ID, and Philadelphia, PA. This geographic reach enables NILC to maintain strong connections and working relationships with advocacy groups across the country and helps inform its legal and policy advocacy work at the national, state, and local levels.

NILC's work currently focuses on key issues affecting low-income immigrants: access to public benefits and safety-net programs; access to health care; access to legal status; immigration enforcement; and worker's rights.

What follows is a snapshot of the past 30 years, highlighting a sampling of key victories in which NILC played an instrumental role:

1979: The Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles (LAFLA) wins federal funding for the National Center for Immigrants' Rights. The Center, a project of LAFLA, is the first national legal services support center specializing in immigration.

1981: The Center wins a preliminary injunction against home raids conducted by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), in Zepeda v. INS.

The Center's directing attorney argues before the U.S. Supreme Court for the right of undocumented children to attend public school, in Plyler v. Doe.

And many more years and achievements to come!

For the complete timeline, please see:

http://www.aisonmedia.com/nilctimeline/index.html

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• immigration
• legal aid
• migrant
• lawyer
• social justice
• attorney
• children
• los angeles