National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, Inc.
50 Years of Fierce Advocacy!
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
For over 50 years, the National Immigration Project (NIPNLG) has fought for justice for those who bear the brunt of racist and immoral immigration laws in the United States. A national membership organization of committed lawyers and advocates, we have held steadfast in our values and worked to protect the rights of all people, including those most marginalized by our immigration and criminal laws. Our work protects and defends immigrant rights in an era of hyper-criminalization. In the face of vast government resources, the reality has been one of overreaching enforcement tactics that violate basic civil rights of noncitizens. NIPNLG advocates to decriminalize migration and ensure that all immigrants are treated fairly and lawfully under U.S. immigration law and the U.S. Constitution. We especially support and partner with those who face the greatest challenges with the fewest resources.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Countering Harsh Enforcement Practices and Keeping Families Together
The National Immigration Project (NIPNLG) provides legal support, training, and technical assistance to noncitizens, legal advocates, community groups, and families responding to egregious immigration enforcement actions, government overreach, and abuse. In addition to being a leading source of cutting-edge legal strategies, the National Immigration Project develops community resource materials to build greater awareness about draconian enforcement actions and the toll exacted upon families.
Criminal and Deportation Defense
A noncitizen in the criminal system faces permanent banishment from the U.S. and separation from her or his family. Criminal defense counsel may be unaware or uninformed about the immigration consequences of criminal conviction. The National Immigration Project has been at the forefront of the national effort to help criminal defense lawyers understand the law and protect their noncitizen clients.
We provide support, referrals, and technical assistance to advocates, community organizations, and families on deportation defense and custody issues. We also provide information and referrals to families and detained immigrants navigating the detention system. These services are available free of charge to practitioners everywhere. Since it began tracking inquiries in 2003, the National Immigration Project has provided over 5,000 instances of direct technical assistance to attorneys in all fifty states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Defending Political Rights
The National Immigration Project opposes immigration enforcement that limits the democratic participation of noncitizens in civil society. We work to ensure that noncitizens have the right to free political expression and participation in the free marketplace of ideas. We help create tools for noncitizens to express their views and work with advocates to create response plans for noncitizens who engage in civil disobedience direct actions for important social causes.
We work to ensure that noncitizens have the right to free political expression...We help create tools for noncitizens to express their views.
From at least the beginning of the last century and through the current era, immigrants have been targeted in this country for their political views and activities. Examples of this include the Palmer raids, in which immigrant union organizers were the main targets of the union-busting tactics of the government and were the most vulnerable due to the potential for deportation; the McCarthy era when immigrant communists and other immigrant political activists became the most vulnerable victims of the "Red scare" hysteria; and from the early 1980s to the present when Palestinian activists and other political and religious activists, Sikh political activists, and other immigrants have been targeted by the government based on what groups they support.
The Project works to combat these unjust government actions through coalition building, providing legal analysis and strategies, organizing politically, and providing legislative analysis of harmful legislative provisions.
Where we work
Affiliations & memberships
National Legal Aid and Public Defender Association - Member 2000
Affiliate/Chapter of National Organization (i.e. Girl Scouts of the USA, American Red Cross, etc.) - Affiliate/chapter 1980
American Bar Association 2000
The National Lawyers Guild "Law for the People" (Law4thePeople) Award 2018
External reviews

Photos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of individuals attending community events or trainings
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Countering Harsh Enforcement Practices and Keeping Families Together
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
In addition to hosting Continuing Legal Education (CLE) seminars & community events, NIPNLG joined numerous panels, webinars, CLE's, and community and coalition meetings, to share its legal expertise.
Number of manuals produced
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Countering Harsh Enforcement Practices and Keeping Families Together
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Educational resources include Practice Advisories for immigration and criminal law practitioners, Reports, Community-facing Explainers, FAQ's, Practice Tips for the legal community, and more.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
For 50 years, NIPNLG has remained at the forefront of the fight to defend the civil and constitutional rights of immigrants in the U.S. We seek to promote justice and equality of treatment in all areas of immigration law, the criminal justice system, and in public policies related to immigration.
NIPNLG serves as a progressive source of advocacy-oriented legal support on issues critical to immigrant rights, including noncitizen victims of government abuse and misconduct, immigrants entangled within the criminal legal system, and immigrants facing summary removal, which deprives them of both the right to appear before a judge and the right to apply for status in the U.S. NIPNLG develops cutting-edge legal strategies to respond to government overreach, and efforts to erode immigrant rights. NIPNLG defends immigrant rights, so that all people in the U.S., regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, beliefs, sexual orientation, gender identity, or immigrant status, are lawfully protected.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
NIPNLG works both independently and collaboratively with immigrant advocacy organizations nationwide. Throughout its history, our goals have remained consistent: to combat discrimination and bias against noncitizens; to promote governmental accountability; to expand the rights of noncitizens; to increase the capacity of immigrant organizations to defend their rights; and to promote fairness, dignity, and equality for all, under the law. Our multi-pronged approach includes litigation, training of immigration law practitioners (and providing them with expert technical assistance), strategic advocacy, and legal support to immigrant organizations in directly impacted communities on the ground. By working on multiple fronts, from the courtrooms to the grassroots communities on the ground, NIPNLG has earned a reputation as a highly principled ally, an honest broker that keeps immigrants at the center; while leveraging its prodigious legal savvy to push forward a pro-immigrant agenda.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
NIPNLG has been at the forefront of the national effort to educate and train criminal defense lawyers about the intersection of criminal and immigration law, or “crim-imm,” in order to best serve their noncitizen clients. A pioneer of crim-imm, NIPNLG has trained over 5,000 immigration and criminal defense attorneys on deportation defense, raids responses, and the immigration consequences of criminal convictions since 2011. We have provided over 6,000 instances of technical assistance on immigration enforcement and detention in this same period. By assisting legal counsel, our effect is multiplied, since each legal representative counsels multiple clients. In this way, NIPNLG acts as a force multiplier – a small organization with a high level of technical immigration law expertise that packs a legal punch. Our staff includes leading legal experts in their fields; our board is comprised of the country's leading immigration law practitioners; and we have thousands of member volunteers nationwide.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
In the 1990s, NIPNLG led the fight in American Baptist Churches v. Thornburgh, which resulted in a victory for 500,000 Guatemalan and Salvadoran asylum seekers, challenging systemic ideological bias in asylum adjudications. In this same era, it also co-founded the National Network on Behalf of Battered Immigrant women; and helped write the immigration laws in the very first Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) and its progeny. In the 2000s, NIPNLG won major legal victories for battered immigrant women and immigrant survivors of abuse, impacting tens if not hundreds of thousands of immigrant women. NIPNLG also contributed to the 2010 lifting of the U.S. ban on HIV+ individuals traveling of immigrating to the U.S. – another victory with countless beneficiaries. In Padilla v. Kentucky in 2010, NIPNLG contributed to the victory of an immigrant’s right to ‘effective assistance of counsel’ – all attorneys must, under the law, properly advise noncitizen clients of the immigration consequences.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization collecting feedback from the people you serve?
Electronic surveys (by email, tablet, etc.), Focus groups or interviews (by phone or in person), Case management notes, Community meetings/Town halls, Constituent (client or resident, etc.) advisory committees,
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve,
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With whom is the organization sharing feedback?
The people we serve, Our staff, Our board, Our funders,
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, Inc.
Board of directorsas of 03/03/2022
Mr. Carlos Moctezuma Garcia
Garcia & Garcia, PLLC
Term: 2019 - 2022
Carlos Garcia
García & García Attorneys at Law, P.L.L.C.
Kathy Moccio
University of Minnesota Law School
Iliana Holguin
The Law Offices of Armendariz & Holguin
JJ Rosenbaum
Global Labor Justice
Ruben Loyo
National Immigrant Justice Center
Sanaa Abrar
United We Dream
Veronica Barba
Lucas & Barba, LLP
Luis Romero
Immigrant Advocacy & Litigation Center, PLL
Fatma Marouf
Texas A&M University School of Law
Rekha Sharma-Crawford
Sharma-Crawford Attorneys
Maureen Sweeney
University of Maryland Carey School of Law
Elizabeth Badger
PAIR Project
Andrea Garcia
Law Offices of the Public Defender Riverside County
Shruti Garg
James Irvine Foundation
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? GuideStar partnered on this section with CHANGE Philanthropy and Equity in the Center.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
No data
Gender identity
No data
No data
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
No data