North County Immigration Task Force (NCITF)

Overview

The North County Immigration Task Force promotes left-of-center immigration policies and provides services to both legal and illegal immigrants. Its focus is northern San Diego County, which includes the wealthy oceanside communities such as Del Mar, Encinitas, Carlsbad, and Oceanside, as well as less-wealthy communities in the eastern part of the region. ⁴ The region also includes the U.S. Marine Corps’ Camp Pendleton. ⁵

NCITF does not appear to have a formal corporate structure or nonprofit tax status. As of October 2025, the donation page on its website was non-functional, it did not advertise an office address, and no organization with its name was registered with the Internal Revenue Service or California Secretary of State. ^{6  7  8}

The founder and co-chair of the NCITF is Tazheen Nizam, who, since 2021, has also been the executive director of Council on American-Islamic Relations-San Diego (CAIR-San Diego). ⁹

Advocacy

The North County Immigration Task Force regularly engages in advocacy on behalf of pro-immigration, left-of-center legislation and policies. It opposes funding for border security, supports “sanctuary cities,” and broadly opposes increased immigration law enforcement efforts under the first and second Trump administrations.  ^{10  11  12  2}

The NCITF’s partners include ACLU-San Diego and Imperial Counties, the San Diego Rapid Response Network, and the Immigrant Legal Resource Center. ¹³ Its work has also been promoted by the American Immigration Council, a left-of-center advocacy group founded by the American Immigration Lawyers Association. ^{14  15}

The NCITF opposes the San Diego Sheriff’s Department’s cooperation with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Border Patrol. ³ In 2021, it joined the League of Women Voters of San Diego and 50 other organizations in criticizing then-Sheriff Bill Gore for “violating the spirit” of the California Values Act, often referred to as California’s “Sanctuary State Law,” by notifying ICE when individuals wanted by ICE were released from county custody. ^{16  3}

In 2021, it supported a particular redistricting proposal developed by the state’s Independent Redistricting Commission, praising it as consolidating the NCITF’s interests into one legislative district. ¹⁷

In 2019, the NCITF joined a coalition supporting the “American Dream and Promise Act” to create a path to citizenship for certain classes of illegal immigrants, including so-called “Dreamers” who were brought to the country as minor children. ¹⁸

In 2016, the NCITF supported resettlement in the United States of refugees from the Syrian civil war. ¹⁹ It opposed the American SAFE Act of 2015, which would have required background investigations into potential refugees from Iraq or Syria to ensure that members of Islamist terrorist organizations did not use the refugee program to enter the United States. ²⁰

During the 2016 election cycle, the NCITF volunteers undertook voter registration efforts in San Diego County, including at a local high school. ²¹ PBS News covered the coalition’s efforts as part of a story on a rise in “No Party Affiliation” registration among Latino voters in California.  ²¹