California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice (CCIJ) is a left-of-center advocacy organization that formed as a result of a merger of two collaboratives opposing the removal of migrants, Northern California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice (NCCIJ) and Northern California Rapid Response and Immigrant Defense Network (NCRRIDN), in the aftermath of the 2016 presidential election. The organization aims to provide legal assistance to detained immigrants in Northern and Central California. It serves as what it calls a “community-legal partnership” to protect affected communities. ¹

Activities

Advocacy

As of February 2025, California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice was advocating the passage of California Assembly Bill 3228, that would regulate private detention operators. It had supported the Hold Act, which provides health oversight for private detention centers and their leadership, and the Mandela Act, which ended solitary confinement for disabled, pregnant or other vulnerable detainees in California prisons. ^{2 3 4}

Legal

The organization filed an August 15, 2024 Civil Rights and Civil Liberties complaint with the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), claiming immigrants at the Golden State Annex Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Detention Center in McFarland, California were attacked by guards for GEO, the private operator of the facility. ⁵

CCIJ filed a motion for summary judgement and motion for partial class certification on behalf of detainees at Mesa Verde ICE Processing Center in Bakersfield, California and the Golden State Annex in McFarland, California in the class action lawsuit for fair pay. ⁶

Data and Reporting

In 2022, CCJI produced a “Starving for Justice” report that alleged the dining halls in Mesa Verde and Golden State Annex detention centers smelled like dirty dishrags, lacked nutritious food, and had cockroaches on meal trays. ⁷

Public Health and Immigrant Detention

CCIJ sponsored the Vaccine Education and Empowerment in Detention (VEED) to provide accurate information regarding COVID-19 to increase vaccination rates amongst detainees in immigrant detention centers. ⁸

Campaigns for Liberation

CCJI advocates the end of immigration detention and seeks to organize communities both physically and online to increase support including email & telephone campaigns to ICE officials. ^{9 10}

Other Activities

CCIJ produced and makes available an online “Know Your Rights” handbook for those detained in immigration facilities who as part of their detention are required to work that includes a United States labor history, an introduction to players in the system, and rights under Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Performance-Based National Detention Standards (PBNDS), and how to assert them. ¹¹

As of 2025, CCIJ was actively supporting a labor strike at Mesa Verde and Goden State Annex detention centers that demands fair treatment and pay. The statement alleges that GEO Group failed to provide “fair salary,” reporting a $1 per day wage for detainees to clean dormitories. ¹²

CCIJ seeks the closure of detention centers and publishes a Yuba Liberation Coalition-authored brief online providing strategies and lessons learned from the termination of the ICE contract at Yuba County Jail. ¹³

CCIJ published a UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs position paper that alleged inhumane labor conditions at Mesa Verde and Golden State Annex and price gouging in the commissary and phone calls. ¹⁴

Funding

CCIJ reported government grants of $200,000 (10.5 percent of total revenue) in 2022. ¹⁵

CCIJ received an $80,000 grant from California ChangeLawyers spread over 2022 and 2023 and a $40,000 grant in 2024 from Movement Lawyering Priority. ¹⁶

CJIF is a partner of left-of-center Zellerbach Family Foundation, a signatory in support of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). ¹⁷

People

Edwin Carmona Cruz is co-executive director and co-leads the Vaccine Education and Empowerment in Detention program. Previously he was co-director of Community-Legal Advocates with Pangea Legal Services of San Francisco, California, and La Raza Centro Legal as development director. ¹⁸

Lisa Knox is co-executive director and legal director. She previously oversaw emergency legal services for LaRaza Communiy Resource Center in Oakland, California. Lisa is on the board of radical-left National Lawyers Guild San Francisco Bay Area. ¹⁸

Financials

CCJI reported $2,043,839 in gifts, grants, contributions, and membership fees for 2021 and 2022. ¹⁹

California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice salary expenses for 2022 totaled $882,489, or 74.9 percent of total expenses. ²⁰

1. “About.” CCIJ. Accessed February 27, 2025. https://www.ccijustice.org/about.
2. “AB3228.” CCIJ. Accessed February 27, 2025. https://www.ccijustice.org/ab3228.
3. “Home.” IDA. Accessed February 27, 2025. https://imadvocates.org/portfolio-item/ab-263-the-hold-act-the-health-oversight-and-leadership-in-detention-act/.
4. “Home.” IDA. Accessed February 27, 2025. https://imadvocates.org/portfolio-item/ab-2632/.
5. “CRCL Complaint Re: April 2024 Golden State Annex Raid.” CCIJ. Accessed February 27, 2025. https://www.ccijustice.org/gsa-a4-raid-crcl.
6. “Legal & Advocacy.” CCIJ. Accessed February 27, 2025. https://www.ccijustice.org/legal-advocacy.
7. “Starving for Justice.” CCIJ. Accessed February 27, 2025. https://www.ccijustice.org/starving-for-justice.
8. “Veed.” CCIJ. Accessed February 27, 2025. https://www.ccijustice.org/veed.
9. “MV GSA Strike Relaunch.” Liberation campaigns accessible to the community. Accessed February 27, 2025. https://takeaction.ccijustice.org/campaigns/27.
10. “MV GSA Strike Relaunch.” Liberation campaigns accessible to the community. Accessed February 27, 2025. https://takeaction.ccijustice.org/campaigns/27#the-body.
11. “Labor Strike Kyr Handbook.” CCIJ. Accessed February 27, 2025. https://www.ccijustice.org/kyr-laborstrike.
12. “Support the Labor Strike inside Detention!” Google Sites: Sign-in. Accessed February 27, 2025. https://sites.google.com/ccijustice.org/supportdetainedstrikers/home-english?authuser=0.
13. Ccijustice. Accessed February 27, 2025. https://www.ccijustice.org/_files/ugd/733055_c43b1cbbdda341b894045940622a6dc3.pdf.
14. “Labor Conditions Report.” CCIJ. Accessed February 27, 2025. https://www.ccijustice.org/labor-conditions-report.
15. “California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice” Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax. Form 990. 2022. Part VIII, Line1e.
16. “California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice.” California Changelawyers. Accessed February 27, 2025. https://changelawyers.org/grant_partners/california-collaborative-for-immigrant-justice/.
17. “California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice (CCIJ).” Zellerbach Family Foundation. Accessed February 27, 2025. https://zff.org/2020/10/california-collaborative-for-immigrant-justice-ccij/.
18.   “Our Team.” CCIJ. Accessed February 27, 2025. https://www.ccijustice.org/our-team.
19. “California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice” Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax. Form 990. 2022. Part II line A.1.
20. “California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice” Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax. Form 990. 2022. Part I Line 15.