Non-profit

Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC)

Website:

cliniclegal.org

Location:

SILVER SPRING, MD

Tax ID:

52-1584951

Tax-Exempt Status:

501(c)(3)

Budget (2016):

Revenue: $6,932,634
Expenses: $6,536,676
Assets: $9,598,079

Formation:

1988

Founded by:

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

Issue Area:

Illegal Immigration

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The Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC) is a left-of-center organization that provides legal services for both legal and illegal immigrants and campaigns for more liberal immigration laws. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops founded the organization in 1988.

The organization is heavily involved in refugee resettlement and receives grants from the federal government. 1 The organization also takes money from numerous left-wing funders including George Soros through his Open Society Foundations, the Ford Foundation, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. 2 3

Services

CLINIC offers numerous services to serve immigrants, both legal and illegal. CLINIC has a presence in 47 states and has over 270 field offices. 4

The organization says it based on “the Gospel value of welcoming the stranger.” 5 The Church supports a very liberal immigration policy on the grounds that “all goods of the earth belong to all people. When persons cannot find employment in their country of origin to support themselves and their families, they have a right to find work elsewhere in order to survive. Sovereign nations should provide ways to accommodate this right.” 6

Currently, CLINIC operates six major programs.

CLINIC conducts advocacy through its “Advocacy” project. CLINIC advocates against state- and local-level immigration restrictionist legislation and operates the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) Pro Bono Project. 7 The BIA Pro Bono Project connects immigrants with cases before BIA with lawyers to represent them. 8

The Center for Citizenship and Immigrant Communities advocates for liberal comprehensive immigration reform including a path to citizenship for the population of roughly 12 million presently illegal immigrants. It also supports other not-for-profit immigrant assistance and immigration advocacy organizations. 9

CLINIC’s Training and Legal Support program “works to expand the availability of professional, low cost immigration services by providing legal expertise and training to CLINIC’s member agencies and constituents.”10

CARA Family Detention Pro Bono Representation and Advocacy Project represents illegal immigrant families in federal detention. 11

Religious Immigration Services helps the Catholic Church bring in immigrants to serve the church as religious workers. 12

Defending Vulnerable Populations Project trains attorneys to represent immigrants in hearings. It does this by expanding training and advocating for more liberal immigration policies. 13

Leadership

Anna Marie Gallagher is the current executive director of CLINIC. She joined CLINIC in February 2019 and practiced immigration law for three decades. 14

Michelle Sardone is the director of strategic initiatives for CLINIC. 15 Jill Marie Bussey is the director of advocacy. 16

Charles Wheeler is CLINIC’s director of training, litigation, and support. Before joining CLINIC he directed the National Immigration Law Center for 10 years. He previously was a part of the far-left National Lawyers Guild. 17

Board of Directors

Bishop of Orange, California Kevin W. Vann serves as the board chair of CLINIC. He has compared opposition to illegal immigration to the anti-Irish nativists of the 19th century on his blog. 18

Most of the rest of CLINIC’s board of directors are various Catholic clergy and church workers with one major exception: Donald Taylor, president of the labor union Unite Here, also serves on the board. 19

Refugee Resettlement

CLINIC often works with Catholic Charities USA and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on refugee resettlement. From 2008 to 2015, the Catholic Church and its affiliated organizations took in over $2 billion in revenue to resettle refugees. 20

Litigation

In January 2019, CLINIC joined the far-left Southern Poverty Law Center and the Legal Aid Justice Center in suing the Trump administration over the issue of detaining illegal immigrant children. The organizations claimed that the Trump administration was detaining the children in order to deter Central Americans from crossing the border illegally. 21

Funding

According to CLINIC’s 2015 IRS filing (Form 990), CLINIC generated $8.9 million in total revenue and spent $7.3 million. It raised nearly $6.6 million in contributions and grants and its programs generated $2.3 million. 22 CLINIC spent over $4.5 million on training and networking with other non-profit groups. It spent $907,069 on representing immigrants in court. It spent $855,928 on advocacy and community engagement.

Among the major donors to CLINIC is far-left billionaire George Soros and his foundations. Soros has donated large sums of money to nominally Catholic groups that attack church doctrine, among them the pro-abortion group Catholics for Choice. 23

From 2000-2014 Soros has donated over $1.4 million to CLINIC. 24 In 2015, Soros’s Foundation to Promote Open Society gave $970,000 to CLINIC. 25

It has also received support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, receiving $1.5 million since 2006. 26 Other financial supporters of CLINIC include the Ford Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, and Unbound Philanthropy.

Grants

According to its 2015 IRS filing, CLINIC gave grants to a number of left-wing groups. Among the left-wing groups that received grants from CLINIC were the AFL-CIO, Asian Americans Advancing Justice -LA, Farmworker Justice, Mexican-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Service Employees International Union, and United We Dream Network27

References

  1. “Refugee Resettlement: The Lucrative Business Of Serving Immigrants”. 2015. Capital Research Center. https://capitalresearch.org/article/refugee-resettlement-the-lucrative-business-of-serving-immigrants/.
  2. Data compiled by FoundationSearch.com subscription service, a project of Metasoft Systems, Inc., from forms filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Queries conducted February 15, 2019.
  3. Nielson, Aly. 2016. “Wikileaks Exposes Soros Millions Pushing To Undermine Catholics”. Newsbusters. https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/business/alatheia-nielsen/2016/10/14/wikileaks-exposes-soros-millions-pushing-undermine.
  4. Refugee Resettlement: The Lucrative Business Of Serving Immigrants”. 2015. Capital Research Center. https://capitalresearch.org/article/refugee-resettlement-the-lucrative-business-of-serving-immigrants/.
  5. “Guiding Principles.” CLINIC. Accessed February 15, 2019. https://cliniclegal.org/guiding-principles.
  6. Toombs, Bonnie. “Church Supports Legal Avenues, Status for Immigrants.” Catholic Diocese of Wichita Kansas. Accessed February 15, 2019. https://catholicdioceseofwichita.org/news/columns/19650-church-supports-legal-avenues-status-for-immigrants-19650.
  7. “Advocacy.” CLINIC. Accessed February 15, 2019. https://cliniclegal.org/programs/advocacy.
  8. “BIA Pro Bono Project.” CLINIC. Accessed February 15, 2019. https://cliniclegal.org/programs/advocacy/bia-pro-bono.
  9. “Center for Citizenship and Immigrant Communities.” CLINIC. Accessed February 15, 2019. https://cliniclegal.org/programs/center-citizenship-and-immigrant-communities.
  10. “Programs”. 2019. CLINIC. Accessed February 11, 2019. https://cliniclegal.org/about-us/programs.
  11. “Programs”. 2019. CLINIC. Accessed February 11, 2019. https://cliniclegal.org/about-us/programs.
  12. “Programs”. 2019. CLINIC. Accessed February 11, 2019. https://cliniclegal.org/about-us/programs.
  13. “Programs”. 2019. CLINIC. Accessed February 11, 2019. https://cliniclegal.org/about-us/programs.
  14. “Staff”. 2019. CLINIC. Accessed February 11, 2019. https://cliniclegal.org/about-us/staff.
  15. “Staff”. 2019. CLINIC. Accessed February 11, 2019. https://cliniclegal.org/about-us/staff.
  16. “Staff”. 2019. CLINIC. Accessed February 11, 2019. https://cliniclegal.org/about-us/staff.
  17. “Staff”. 2019. CLINIC. Accessed February 11, 2019. https://cliniclegal.org/about-us/staff.
  18. “Board Of Directors”. 2019. CLINIC. Accessed February 11, 2019. https://cliniclegal.org/about-us/board.
  19. “Board Of Directors”. 2019. CLINIC. Accessed February 11, 2019. https://cliniclegal.org/about-us/board.
  20. “Refugee Resettlement: The Lucrative Business Of Serving Immigrants”. 2015. Capital Research Center. https://capitalresearch.org/article/refugee-resettlement-the-lucrative-business-of-serving-immigrants/.
  21. “Catholic Group Joins Suit Over Federal Detention Of Immigrant Youth”. 2019. Catholic Philly. http://catholicphilly.com/2019/01/news/national-news/clinic-other-groups-join-in-lawsuit-over-detention-of-immigrant-youth/.
  22. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990). Catholic Legal Immigration Network (2015).
  23. Nielson, Aly. 2016. “Wikileaks Exposes Soros Millions Pushing To Undermine Catholics”. Newsbusters. https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/business/alatheia-nielsen/2016/10/14/wikileaks-exposes-soros-millions-pushing-undermine.
  24. Nielson, Aly. 2016. “Wikileaks Exposes Soros Millions Pushing To Undermine Catholics”. Newsbusters. https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/business/alatheia-nielsen/2016/10/14/wikileaks-exposes-soros-millions-pushing-undermine.
  25. Maghami, Neil. 2017. “True Believers: George Soros And The Religious Left’S War On President Trump”. Capital Research Center. https://capitalresearch.org/article/true-believers-george-soros-and-the-religious-lefts-war-on-president-trump/.
  26. “Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc.”. 2019. Carnegie Corporation Of New York. Accessed February 11, 2019. https://www.carnegie.org/grants/grants-database/grantee/catholic-legal-immigration-network-inc/#!/grants/grants-database/grant/24594.01/.
  27. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990). Catholic Legal Immigration Network (2015).
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Nonprofit Information

  • Accounting Period: December - November
  • Tax Exemption Received: July 1, 1991

  • Available Filings

    Period Form Type Total revenue Total functional expenses Total assets (EOY) Total liabilities (EOY) Unrelated business income? Total contributions Program service revenue Investment income Comp. of current officers, directors, etc. Form 990
    2016 Dec Form 990 $6,932,634 $6,536,676 $9,598,079 $877,622 N $4,307,025 $2,396,447 $53,196 $140,962
    2015 Dec Form 990 $8,950,134 $7,319,526 $9,635,419 $1,251,965 N $6,568,308 $2,310,617 $34,682 $141,896 PDF
    2014 Dec Form 990 $7,210,588 $5,347,163 $7,959,997 $1,157,078 N $4,880,250 $2,190,279 $32,552 $130,106 PDF
    2013 Dec Form 990 $7,165,593 $6,518,970 $6,200,446 $1,243,535 N $4,716,570 $2,211,000 $33,660 $248,326 PDF
    2012 Dec Form 990 $7,589,123 $7,114,046 $5,401,200 $1,205,200 N $3,987,069 $3,533,361 $34,756 $165,553 PDF
    2011 Dec Form 990 $7,326,315 $7,076,167 $4,980,744 $1,380,494 N $3,808,648 $3,465,636 $33,761 $165,972 PDF

    Additional Filings (PDFs)

    Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC)

    8757 GEORGIA AVE STE 850
    SILVER SPRING, MD 20910-3784