In conjunction with the legal communities of Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington D.C., Munger, Tolles & Olson works to fill the advocacy gap for members of vulnerable populations seeking immigration relief.

Our attorneys have represented immigration clients in nearly every forum that plays a role in deciding their cases, including the federal immigration courts, the Board of Immigration Appeals, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, state courts and federal courts. We work closely with leading legal services organizations in the immigration field, including Human Rights First, Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), Immigration Equality, Public Counsel and the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project.

For our pro bono immigration work, MTO and individual attorneys at the firm have received multiple awards, including recognition from Human Rights First, KIND, the National Immigrant Justice Center and the ACLU Foundation of Southern California.

Individual Representation

Munger Tolles has developed particular experience in representing individuals in seeking asylum, protection under the Convention Against Torture, special immigrant juvenile status, and U visas. We take on challenging cases, such as immigrants fleeing gang violence or persecution over their political opinion, sexual orientation, gender identity, or ethnicity, with work that includes:

• A precedent-setting victory convincing the California Supreme Court to vacate the conviction of a military father and veterans’ rights activist who had been deported two decades earlier when his counsel did not advise him that pleading guilty to a criminal charge would lead to his deportation.
• Working with Human Rights First for five years to obtain an Immigration Court order granting asylum to a transgender woman from El Salvador who had endured years of economic discrimination and physical abuse based on her perceived sexual orientation.
• Working with Human Rights First to obtain a grant of asylum to Zhuoxuan Bao, the son of a leading human rights lawyer in China, who was held under house arrest and beaten by the Chinese government at 16 years old due to his parents’ activism.
• Winning a Ninth Circuit asylum appeal for an immigrant who was subject to arrest in his native Cameroon for being gay and who had barely escaped a violent homophobic attack by a mob, in which his partner was murdered.
• Obtaining asylum for four Afghan journalists, three of them women, who were referred to us by Human Rights First and who were under threat by the Taliban for their reporting and human rights activism in Afghanistan.

Impact Litigation

On the broader level, Munger Tolles attorneys have filed class action suits challenging state and federal policies that illegally target immigrants and people of color. We have worked with:

• The ACLU Foundation of Northern California and Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus to reach a settlement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that ends the agency’s alleged practice of contracting with private companies to make immigration arrests at California prisons and jails.
• The ACLU Foundation of Southern California and UC Irvine School of Law Immigrant Rights Clinic to win a landmark suit challenging ICE home arrest policies that included allegedly impersonating police or misrepresenting their governmental identities to enter a home.
• The Asian Prisoner Support Committee, Root & Rebound and two individual plaintiffs to file a lawsuit against the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation challenging immigration-enforcement practices that unlawfully discriminate against hundreds of people in custody each year based on race, ethnicity, national origin and other protected characteristics. We successfully argued against an attempt to dismiss the lawsuit, enabling currently and formerly incarcerated individuals to present their case in court.

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