Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA)

For 35 years, CHIRLA's organizational goal has been to create a more just society fully inclusive of immigrants. CHIRLA seeks to engage mixed-status immigrant families, low-wage workers and immigrant students through community education and outreach, organizing, legal services, civic engagement, policy and advocacy, coalition building, and leadership development for youth. CHIRLA’s programs have supported the immigrant community to learn how to use their voice and experiences to educate their community and elected officials about policies that most impact their lives. Through its work, CHIRLA has uplifted immigrants and refugees by ensuring communities across the United States understand the value that immigrants bring economically, socially, and culturally.

CHIRLA organizes and serves individuals, institutions, and coalitions to build power, transform public opinion, and change policies to achieve full human, civil and labor rights. CHIRLA empowers immigrants through innovative programming in community education, community organizing, legal services, civic engagement, policy and advocacy, and leadership development for youth.

CHIRLA’s strategies include:
● Educating and providing critical resources, referrals, trainnings, and cash aid to immigrants and their families;
● Organizing direct actions and protests to ensure that immigrant voices are heard and needs are met;
● Providing expert legal services to protect and defend undocumented and mix-status immigrants;
● Building a strong multi-ethnic, multi-sector, multi-regional coalition;
● Engaging new citizen and allied voters in year-round civic engagement activities;
● Leading local, state, and national advocacy to empower and include immigrant voices and needs;
● Transforming public opinion to recognize the positive contributions of immigrant communities and to help foster a positive social and political environment for immigrants and their families.

CHIRLA is a California leader with national impact made of diverse immigrant families and individuals who act as agents of social change. As a membership-based organization, CHIRLA’s unique role in the field is its capacity to combine mass grassroots organizing of immigrant families, workers and youth with sophisticated policy and advocacy at the local, state and national level. Immigrants play a leadership role in all aspects of our organization and many member leaders have become key leaders within the organization. CHIRLA has a comprehensive approach to its programs in organizing, community education and outreach, legal services, civic engagement and policy and advocacy. For over 33 years, CHIRLA has been working with and from an immigrant base, to: advocate for rights and integration; educate elected officials about important issue impacting the lives of families, youth and workers at the local, state and national level; and implement and offer direct-service programs that support the immigrant community. CHIRLA is also a coalition builder, an organizer, a policy advocate, and a direct-service provider, all in one. Below is a list of national, state and local partners/coalitions that CHIRLA has been actively engaged with:

● National: Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM), Reform Immigration for America
(RIFA), Movement of Immigrants in America (MIA), Alliance for Citizenship (A4C), Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI), Black Immigrant Network, National Partnership for New Americans (NPNA), National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA). National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON), Equal Voices Campaign, Employment, Education, and Outreach (EMPLEO), We Are All America campaign, African Public Health Coalition, Leadership Conference on Civic and Human Rights, National Temporary Protected Status (TPS) Alliance.

● State: The California Table for Immigration Reform (convener), Blueprint for Belonging, California Domestic Workers Coalition (CDWC), Census Policy Advocacy Network (CPAN), Having Our Say Coalition, Mobilize the Immigrant Vote (MIV), Rockwood Fellowship for a New California, Million Voter Project (MVP), Ready California.

● Local: LA Action Table (convener), Cities for Citizenship (C4C), May Day Coalition, Korean Immigrant Workers Association (KIWA), Multi-Ethnic Immigrant Worker Organizing Network (MIWON), Los Angeles Citizenship Task Force, Los Angeles Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Task Force, Protegete, Ciudadania Ya! The Los Angeles, Progressive Coalition (steering committee member).

CHIRLA has accomplished its organizational goal of transforming California into the current model state for immigrant integration in the nation. CHIRLA’s work has resulted in historic wins for the immigrant community, among many are access legal protections, worker rights resources, drivers licenses for undocumented immigrants, and in-state tuition for AB 540 students. CHIRLA’s current priority is leading a comprehensive campaign to win legalization for 11 million with the Yes to Immigrants Forward Campaign. This push for a pathway to citizenship could mean reuniting families, expanding labor and civil rights protections, modernizing existing immigration programs, and providing a just pathway to full inclusion for immigrants.

CHIRLA past program accomplishments include:

● Legal Services: CHIRLA has submitted 10,491 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) applications and renewal applications, which represents one of the highest numbers submitted in California.
● Civic Engagement: CHIRLA’s Immigrant Political Power (IPP) Project is the largest low-propensity Latinx and New American voter engagement program in California. During the 2018 Primary and General elections, the IPP Project reached 239,824 low-propensity (an individual who has voted 1-3 times in the last 6 elections) Latino voters.
● Community Education & Outreach: Between 2017 and 2019, CHIRLA reached 165,021 individuals through 1,566 Know Your Rights (KYR) presentations, including 8,992 CHIRLA’s hotline calls. CHIRLA conducted a mass community education campaign providing bilingual information, including in-person community presentations with detailed PowerPoint slides; KYR flyers, which include information about the steps to take if a person is detained by ICE; and assisting with family plans or caregiver affidavits to prepare a family in case of a potential deportation. CHIRLA also re-launched its online KYR Hub including videos, flyers and KYR cards.
● Organizing: In 2019, CHIRLA mobilized a total of 19,306 individuals through marches, rallies, press conferences, presentations, retreats, and visits to Sacramento to educate elected officials about their experiences and stories. In addition, CHIRLA’s youth program supported 1,460 mixed-status immigrant youth to organize walk-outs to defend the DACA program; and coordinated the participation of 120 youth to visit Washington D.C., facilitating their ability to share their stories about the DREAM Act.
● Policy & Advocacy: CHIRLA’s advocacy work have successfully resulted in local, state and national programs that better the lives of immigrant families. Our Policy team has successfully advocated to establish legal protections for undocumented immigrants such as the Los Angeles Justice Fund, provided state funding for legal immigration services through the One California program, and helped educate elected officials to keep the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program at the national level.