The American Civil Liberties Union, American Immigration Council, Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, Public Counsel, and K&L Gates LLP filed a nationwide class-action lawsuit on behalf of thousands of children who are challenging the federal government's failure to provide them with legal representation in deportation hearings.

After a long legal battle the ACLU, on behalf of plaintiffs in Lopez Valenzuela v. Maricopa County prevailed by blocking further implementation of a law that for years did not allow judges to even consider bail for criminal defendants who were suspected of having "entered or remained in the United States illegally," and which applied to most state felony charges in Arizona, including relatively minor crimes such as shoplifting and possessing a phony ID. As a result of Proposition 100, which amended the state constitution, state courts were required to jail countless individuals who posed no risk of flight or danger to others.

On June 2, 2011, the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project joined with the ACLU Racial Justice Project, the ACLU of Georgia, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), Asian Law Caucus, the National Immigration Law Center (NILC), and private co-counsel to file a lawsuit challenging Georgia's anti-immigrant law, HB 87, which was inspired by Arizona's notorious SB 1070. The Georgia law authorized police to demand "papers" demonstrating citizenship or immigration status during traffic stops, criminalized Georgians in their daily interaction with immigrants, and made it nearly impossible for individuals without specific identification documents to access state facilities and services.