Mission and History
Mission
The National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild (NIPNLG) is a national non-profit organization that provides technical assistance and support to community-based immigrant organizations, legal practitioners, and all advocates seeking and working to advance the rights of noncitizens.
NIPNLG promotes justice and equality of treatment in all areas of immigration law, the criminal justice system, and policies related to immigration. For 50 years, the National Immigration Project has served as a progressive source of advocacy-oriented legal support on issues critical to immigrant rights.
NIPNLG works to protect the rights of all, including noncitizens entangled within the criminal justice system, victims of government abuse and misconduct, and those facing summary removal. We develop cutting-edge strategies to respond to unlawful immigration enforcement, government overreach, and efforts to erode immigrants’ rights.
NIPNLG work both independently and collaboratively with immigration advocacy organizations across the U.S. to educate and strengthen the capacity of immigration professionals and immigrant organizations to defend immigrant rights, while promoting public policy change through litigation, advocacy, and support for community organizing on the ground.
History
The National Immigration Project was formed in 1971 as a committee of the National Lawyers Guild and became a freestanding organization in 1981.
Since our inception we have served as a progressive source of advocacy-oriented legal support on immigrant rights issues.
In the 1970s and 1980s we helped political refugees seek asylum in the U.S., with an emphasis on asylum-seekers from Central America. We also worked with grassroots groups to expose violence against immigrant women and children at the U.S. border.
In the 1990s we worked with several other groups to challenge the government’s use of secret evidence against noncitizens, and expanded our support for immigrant survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault by forming a national advocacy coalition. We also began to draw attention to the plight of HIV-positive noncitizens, and campaigned to end draconian travel restrictions on HIV-positive noncitizens and visitors to the U.S.
Today we are one of the few national legal support groups that specialize in defending the rights of immigrants facing incarceration and deportation.