ImmigraNT Justice

Partnering with Low-Income Immigrant Communities to Advance Immigrants’ Rights

In the 56 years of WLC’s work, we have brought systemic litigation to challenge racial oppression in the immigration, employment, housing, education, policing, and prison systems in the Greater Washington D.C. region and across the country. As individuals and families relocate to Washington D.C., a vibrant and diverse community of migrants continues to grow, making up about 15 percent of the current D.C. population. From within the nation’s capital, WLC has worked alongside these communities to protect and establish the civil rights of immigrants for decades.

Partnering with Immigrant Community Groups and National Immigrants’ Rights Organizations

We have a long, proud history of founding, and working closely, with immigrant community organizations dating back to the 1978 creation of the Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project at WLC. In 1999 that Project spun off as the Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights (“CAIR”) Coalition as an independent non-profit organization. CAIR Coalition (now the Amica Center) is the leading organization providing free legal and social services to detained immigrants in the Greater Washington D.C. region.

More recently, we have represented CASA de Maryland (now “CASA”) to challenge the Trump administration’s rescission of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival program (“DACA”) and the unconstitutional termination of Temporary Protected Status (“TSP”) for Salvadorans. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision to strike down the DACA recession was a great success for WLC and our community.

Protecting Civil Rights for All

WLC works alongside local immigrant communities in response to an array of legal problems, seeking to protect the civil rights of all families. We run a Workers’ Rights Clinic twice weekly to provide low-income workers free legal advice and conduct Know Your Rights trainings on housing law, employment law, and education law for the community. Through litigation, we have represented migrants facing wage theft, sexual harassment, unsafe housing conditions, abusive conditions in detention centers, and many more civil rights violations. Through these cases, we stood—and continue to stand—in solidarity with the immigrant communities in D.C., the DMV, and across the county.