“The Stakes Could Not Be Higher” for Immigrant Communities

Since its founding 10 years ago, the Immigrant Defenders Law Center (known as ImmDef) has grown to become one of California’s largest providers of immigration legal services. A trailblazer in “universal representation,” ImmDef championed the vision that no immigrant should face immigration court alone. The organization also connects its clients with critical social services to help them thrive in a state where immigrants are essential to the fabric of society.  

The 200-staff-member organization was on a strong upward trajectory until February 2025, when it received an immediate “stop-work order” from the federal government to shut down its federally funded work defending unaccompanied minor children from deportation. This order cut off almost 60% of ImmDef’s funding—and it came despite the fact that the funding program was created by Congress with bipartisan support to ensure that vulnerable unaccompanied children have access to legal representation and due process.

“If you haven’t been in an immigration courtroom and seen a small child trying to represent themselves and wearing headphones so they can hear an interpretation in their own language while the government is trying to prosecute them and have them deported, it’s heartbreaking,” said ImmDef President and CEO Lindsay Toczylowski.  

In response to the crisis, ImmDef, along with 10 other nonprofit partners across the country—many of which also lost funding and much of their staff—mobilized to ensure that no child would be left alone in the system. Together, they are fighting to uphold the law and guarantee legal representation for every unaccompanied child.  

Two federal court rulings in April affirmed ImmDef’s position and ordered funding to be restored for these programs. “We did a lot of scenario planning over the past year for what might happen to our work under this administration, but this goes beyond anything we anticipated,” said Toczylowski. 

A Steadfast Vision for Universal Representation

Even in times of crisis, ImmDef remains focused on the bold, long-term vision of universal representation. At its core, this model affirms that every person—regardless of income, background, or immigration status—deserves due process and a fair chance to be heard, especially when the stakes involve their freedom, safety, or possible separation from family.

Immigration court is adversarial by design, and yet children—some as young as toddlers—are expected to stand before a judge, often without legal counsel. That’s why Congress created programs and allocated grants to groups like ImmDef to ensure that children in removal proceedings are represented, protected, and treated with dignity. ImmDef attorneys often use age-appropriate tools like puppets and cartoons to help these young clients grasp the terrifying reality of what it means to be placed in deportation proceedings.

Unlike in criminal court, where public defenders are a guaranteed right, immigrants facing deportation are not entitled to government-funded attorneys. This glaring gap in due process is what fuels the fight for universal representation.  

Over the past two decades, dozens of jurisdictions—including Los Angeles—have adopted universal representation programs that reflect foundational American values: fairness, dignity, and equal access to justice. These programs don’t just offer legal defense—they keep families together, shield children from trauma, and enhance the credibility of the legal system itself.

ImmDef embodies this commitment every single day. Each year, its team provides critical legal defense, know-your-rights education, and connections to wraparound social services for thousands of immigrants—many of whom are detained or newly arrived, often with nowhere else to turn. In 2024, ImmDef attorneys provided representation for more than 2,500 unaccompanied migrant children.

“We’re not just attorneys for these children,” Toczylowski said. “We are often the first to recognize when a child is at risk of trafficking or abuse. We represent them across systems to ensure their safety and offer a voice they can trust in a world that often feels hostile.” 

A Focus on Immigrant Families and California  

With one of the largest immigrant populations in the country, and a strong immigrant youth movement, it is unsurprising that California is home to more unaccompanied children than any other border state; Los Angeles is one of the top welcoming cities for these children after Houston and New York City. 

Beyond serving children, ImmDef is also involved in thousands of cases of families and adult immigrants facing deportation. Along with providing legal services to many that were “disappeared” in Los Angeles recently, one high-profile case it is currently overseeing is that of Andry Hernandez Romero, a makeup artist and a member of the LGBTQ community who was taken to a high-security prison in El Salvador. As far as ImmDef can tell, the only reason their client was swept up was due to crown tattoos honoring his mother and his father.

“As an organization serving people in removal proceedings, the attacks we’re seeing in the communities we serve are relentless,” Toczylowski said. “This dragnet style of law enforcement means communities and families are being ripped apart.” 

A Call to Philanthropy

Decades of innovative public-private investments resulted in a strong ecosystem of nonprofit organizations providing legal representation for immigrants and refugee children in the U.S. facing unjust deportations. With this infrastructure now being torn down, private philanthropy can lead the way in ensuring that nonprofit organizations can continue vital and lifesaving programs. “It may be impossible to fully fill the gap we find ourselves in right now,” Toczylowski said. “But we want to do everything we can to hold onto our teams and respond to this moment and then rebuild when we can.”  

Funders have many opportunities to support ImmDef and its coalition partners right now. That includes combining rapid-response and multi-year grants to support litigation, strategic communications, coalition building, organizing, internal operations, and more.

Now is the time to affirm that, even in times of political change, we have a collective responsibility to protect vulnerable children and families from being lost in the system. 

By the Numbers: Immigrant Defenders Law Center (ImmDef)

• Founded: 2015
• Number of Staff: 160
• Attorneys on Staff: 70
• Migrant Clients Served Since 2024: 68,217
• Migrants directly represented in deportation proceedings (2024): 3,353
• Unaccompanied minor children served (2024): 2,559
• Active caseload for removal defense (as of April 2025): 3,422