American Civil Liberties Union

When the government has the power to deny legal rights and due process to one vulnerable group, everyone's rights are at risk. The ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project is dedicated to expanding and enforcing the civil liberties and civil rights of immigrants and to combating public and private discrimination against these groups.

Using targeted impact litigation, advocacy and public outreach, the Project carries on the ACLU’s commitment to protecting the rights and liberties of immigrants. For more than twenty years, the Project has been at the forefront of almost every major legal struggle on behalf of immigrants’ rights, focusing on challenging laws that deny immigrants’ access to the courts, impose indefinite and mandatory detention and discriminate on the basis of nationality. In addition, the Project has been challenging constitutional abuses that arise from immigration enforcement at the federal, state, and local levels, including litigation against worksite and home raids, local anti-immigrant employment and housing laws, and improper enforcement of federal immigration laws by local law enforcement.

From federal district and appellate courts across the country to the Supreme Court, the Project conducts the nation’s largest impact litigation program dedicated to defending and expanding the rights of immigrants, enforcing the guarantees of the Constitution and achieving equal justice under the law.

Additional Resources

Immigration Reform Must Respect Civil Liberties, Says ACLU (2010 press release): Sens. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) have outlined a framework for immigration reform that they shared with the president. The senators have built the framework around four main issues: mandatory biometric Social Security cards for all Americans; ramping up border and interior immigration enforcement; redesigning a system for temporary workers; and creating a tougher plan for legalizing the immigration status of those already in America.

Immigration Myths and Facts (2008 resource): Frequently asked questions about immigration issues.

Arizona Immigration Law Threatens Civil Rights And Public Safety, Says ACLU (2010 press release): Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed into law Arizona's discriminatory immigration enforcement bill which requires law enforcement to question individuals about their immigration status during everyday police encounters. The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Arizona strongly condemn the governor's decision to sign the unconstitutional law and are dismayed by her disregard for the serious damage it could cause to civil liberties and public safety in the state.

Proposed Immigration Bill Raises Civil Liberties Concerns, Says ACLU (2010 press release): The American Civil Liberties Union has serious reservations about a draft version of a comprehensive immigration reform (CIR) bill summary posted on Politico late Wednesday. Although the ACLU has not seen the full legislative language of the bill, the published draft raises serious civil liberties concerns, including a troubling provision which would create a biometric national ID card. Senators Harry Reid, Dick Durbin, Chuck Schumer, Patrick Leahy, Dianne Feinstein and Bob Menendez will hold a press conference this evening to unveil their outline of the bill.

Most Popular

Frequently Asked Questions - Update on Legal Challenges to Arizona's Racial Profiling Law (S.B. 1070) (2011 resource): Frequently asked questions about the legal challenges to Arizona law S.B. 1070.

Frequently Asked Questions About the Georgia Racial Profiling Law (2011 resource): Frequently asked questions about the Georgia law H.B. 87, the legal challenge to that law and racial profiling.

Immigrants and the Economy (2002 resource): Blaming immigrants for the nation's woes has long been an American pastime, especially in hard economic times like today. Recently, there has been an upsurge in anti-immigrant sentiment, particularly in areas of the country that host large number of immigrants. Public opinion surveys indicate that the public does draw a distinction between legal and undocumented immigrants, and that the public regards undocumented immigrants with increasing disfavor.

Puerto Rican Birth Certificates Issued Before July 1, 2010 Declared Void (2011 press release): A change in the law has voided the birth certificates of approximately five million Puerto Ricans, including some 1.4 million on the U.S. mainland, if they were issued before July 1, 2010. The Massachusetts Law Reform Institute (MLRI) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Massachusetts urge those affected to take steps now to obtain new birth certificates, and to report any problems or delays in obtaining new birth certificates from Puerto Rico, or in obtaining IDs and driver's licenses from Massachusetts, which often depend on having a valid birth certificate.

Undocumented Workers Bring Plea for Non-Discrimination to Human Rights Body (2006 press release): The American Civil Liberties Union, the National Employment Law Project and the Transnational Legal Clinic at the University of Pennsylvania School of Law today filed a petition urging the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to find the United States in violation of its universal human rights obligations by failing to protect millions of undocumented workers from exploitation and discrimination in the workplace.

DHS Announces Indefinite Suspension Of Controversial And Ineffective Immigrant Registration And Tracking System (2011 press release): The Department of Homeland Security today, in a long-overdue announcement, said it will indefinitely suspend the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS). Instituted in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, NSEERS was a domestic immigration enforcement program targeting men and boys from predominantly Arab- and Muslim-majority nations for extraordinary registration requirements with DHS. The program was repeatedly condemned by the United Nations’ Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination as resulting in widespread profiling of tens of thousands of immigrants from Arab- and Muslim-majority countries.

U.S.-Mexico Border Crossing Deaths Are A Humanitarian Crisis, According To Report From The ACLU And CNDH (2009 press release): U.S., Mexican and international officials must recognize the deaths of migrants occurring during unauthorized crossings of the U.S.-Mexican border as an international humanitarian crisis and respond with reforms that make human life a priority, according to a new report released today by the American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego and Imperial Counties and Mexico's National Commission on Human Rights (CNDH). The report, Humanitarian Crisis: Migrant Deaths at the U.S.-Mexico Border, finds that border deaths have increased despite fewer unauthorized crossings due to the economic downturn.

Human Trafficking: Modern Enslavement of Immigrant Women in the United States (2007 PDF): Human trafficking is a modern form of slavery. It is an extreme form of labor exploitation where women, men and children are recruited or obtained and then forced to labor against their will through force, fraud or coercion. Trafficking victims are often lured by false promises of decent jobs and better lives. The inequalities women face in status and opportunity worldwide make women particularly vulnerable to trafficking.