ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project Hiring Staff Attorney (SoCal)

From the ACLU:

“The ACLU SoCal’s Immigrants’ Rights Project protects and advances the rights of immigrants. We tackle problems through creative campaigns that involve policy advocacy, legal advocacy and litigation, and community education and organizing. Our advocacy is national, statewide, and local to Southern California. We work closely with a statewide ACLU of California Immigrants’ Rights team, the national ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project, as well as ACLU colleagues working for economic justice, criminal justice reform, education reform, racial justice, and LGBTQ and women’s’ rights.

Our office has been at the forefront of litigation and advocacy on a number of immigrants’ rights issues. Our immigrants’ rights priorities are:

• Expanding the right to appointed counsel for people in deportation proceedings;
• Ending prolonged and unnecessary immigration detention; and
• Ending unconstitutional immigration enforcement practices and disentangling local police agencies from immigration enforcement work.

We are looking for a dynamic, experienced, creative, and thoughtful attorney who will focus on a range of immigrants’ rights issues using an array of advocacy tactics to achieve social change. This person will investigate and analyze problems immigrants are experiencing and devise and implement campaigns to solve those problems through legal advocacy and litigation, policy reform and policy implementation, community education and organizing, and digital and media advocacy.

In the immediate term, the attorney will focus on litigation to advance a right to appointed counsel for children facing deportation; advocacy to promote and develop local and state strategies to enhance access to counsel for people facing deportation; and litigation related to discriminatory federal practices that treat immigrants from Muslim-majority countries differently in the process of applying for important immigration benefits.

Litigation and Policy Advocacy

• Build and implement effective legal advocacy, policy reform campaigns, alone and in a team, to effect change at the local, state, and national level by influencing government agencies, law enforcement agencies, executive branch officials and legislators.
• Investigate, develop and litigate high-impact cases in federal court; serving as lead and co-counsel and working in conjunction with other staff within the ACLU SoCal and partner organizations.
• Serve as a legal and policy expert and draft legal advocacy letters, amicus briefs, legislation, regulatory comments, reports, policy briefs and coalition sign-on letters.
• Conduct legislative advocacy through lobbying, testimony, and legislative briefings.

Community Engagement, Media and Digital Advocacy

• Devise and present engaging “know your rights” presentations and engage in public speaking.
• Devise and strategically distribute “know your rights” and other educational materials.
• Write op-eds, blog posts, and social media content.
• Grow and deepen relationships with community partners, coalitions, and stakeholders.
• Provide technical support and strategic leadership to community groups, advocates and organizers in the region.
• Organize, lead, and participate in community education events and meetings.

People Management

• Hire and manage fellows and interns.

The Immigrants’ Rights Staff Attorney will report to the Director of Immigrants’ Rights, and will work closely with the Advocacy and Legal Director, other legal, policy, organizing, legislative and communications staff at ACLU SoCal and other ACLU of California offices, as well as a variety of coalitions and community-based and advocacy organizations.

QUALIFICATIONS

The ACLU SoCal anticipates hiring an attorney with three to six years’ experience, though applications from a range of experienced attorneys will be considered. Applicants must have excellent research, writing, analytic, interpersonal, communication, and time-management skills. Applicants must also have patience, emotional intelligence and cultural competency, including the ability to participate in, create and sustain inclusive and engaging spaces for people of all races/ethnicities, genders, ages, classes, and geographies. Applicants must be able to occasionally work evenings and weekends, and travel throughout the region and, occasionally, other parts of the country.

Strong candidates will have demonstrated experience using advocacy, community engagement, and litigation as part of a creative response to civil rights violations in affected communities; relevant experience working on immigrants’ rights; and be a flexible team player but also comfortable working independently and taking initiative. Spanish language fluency is preferred.”

-JKoh