READ: Our new comic, Broken Stems, is a story about how California prisons tear apart families by voluntarily colluding with ICE.

We work on the ground within the communities we serve to fight for collective justice.

Community-Led Movements

Our work starts at home

From the beginning, we knew the power of combining legal advocacy with community empowerment to deliver change.

When we set up practice in a small storefront in Oakland, our staff consisted of one attorney and a handful of dedicated community activists and law clerks. As our movements for justice grew, our team also grew.

Today, our community advocates work directly with families and residents in the Bay Area and across the state. We distribute know-your-rights materials in dozens of languages, forge relationships with partner organizations to build shared power, and engage in coalitions that sustain social movement infrastructure and strength. Across our issue areas, we also build and center the leadership of directly impacted community members. Through our Yuri Kochiyama fellowship, for example, formerly incarcerated community members work with organizations, lawmakers and communities to advance and implement legislation at the intersection of criminal justice and immigrant enforcement systems.

When the needs of immigrants, refugees, their families, and communities are put first, our movements win. Through our work with community, we have helped workers win back stolen wages, led successful campaigns to reduce mass incarceration and free refugees from state prison, increased access to translated materials for immigrant voters, and helped reunite families who were separated because of the Muslim Ban and other policies targeting Muslim communities.

Help Us Build Power

No one can achieve justice alone. That’s why we need you to join us. From ensuring that every worker knows their rights to fighting unlawful detention, we can win a better future together. Find resources.

News & Recent Cases

Learn more about our work in community movement building and advocacy.

Perspective

Broken Stems: A Story of How California Prisons and ICE Tear Families Apart

March 20, 2024

Learn more about our work in community movement building and advocacy.
Perspective

Learning from Civil Rights Legacies: A Trip to Alabama Steeped in History & Reflection

March 18, 2024

Learn more about our work in community movement building and advocacy.
Perspective

Community Lawyering & My Journey to Self-Love, Healing, and Justice

March 12, 2024

Learn more about our work in community movement building and advocacy.