United Coalition for Immigrant Services

Background

The United Coalition for Immigrant Services is a coalition created by Collaborative Resources for Immigrant Services on the Peninsula and South Bay Legal Immigration. This coalition brought together 16 organizations that provide legal services to migrants in the Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties of California. ¹

CRISP was established in 2005 as a collaborative project with seven organizations that focus on legal services to illegal immigrants in San Mateo County, California. ³

SBLISN was established in 2009 with nine members that focus on legal services to illegal immigrants in the Santa Clara County, California area. ⁴

The United Coalition for Immigrant Services was formed in 2024. It started as CRISP-SBLISN and was re-branded to the United Coalition for Immigrant Services. The leading funders of the coalition were the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, Northern California Grantmakers, the Grove Foundation, and Sobrato Philanthropies. ²

Coalition Members

Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto (CLSEPA) is a member of both Collaborative Resources for Immigrant Services on the Peninsula and South Bay Legal Immigration. It is an activist organization that focuses on legal services for immigrants, tenants at risk of eviction, and workers’ rights, including discrimination, re-entry into the workforce from prison, and immigrant workers. ⁵ For the year ending in June 2023, CLSEPA received over $3 million in government grants, 60 percent of its total revenue for the year. ⁶ In March 2025 CLESPA joined pro-immigrant activist groups Acacia Center for Justice, the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, the National Immigrant Justice Center, and others in a lawsuit against a second Trump administration funding freeze that was implemented as part of its cost-cutting program that stopped the funding of legal services to children who enter the United States illegally. ^{7 8}

The Immigrant Legal Resource Center is a member of CRISP. It provides legal training and assistance to support illegal immigrants, engages in immigrant policy advocacy, and encourages immigrant civic engagement. It published a manifesto entitled “Resisting Authoritarianism: Our Collective Struggle Against Trump’s Escalating Attacks on Immigrant Communities.” ⁹ It has received over $3.6 million in government grants in 2023. ¹⁰

Other CRISP members include the Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach, Catholic Charities of San Francisco, Coastside Hope, the Immigration Institute of the Bay Area in Redwood City, La Raza Centro Legal, the Legal Aid Society of San Mateo County, and the Tahirih Justice Center. ¹¹

The Asian Law Alliance is a member of SBLISN. It is a public interest law firm that supports left-of-center immigration policies and provides legal services to support Asian Americans. ¹² In the tax year ending June 2023 the organization received $2.6 million in government grants, approximately 70% of its total revenue. ¹³

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is a member of SBLISN. It is an international organization that provides aid to illegal immigrants and refugees entering the United States. It supports legal status for undocumented immigrants living in the United States and hosts welcome centers that provide services to those entering the United States illegally. ^{14 15} In the tax year ending September 2023, the IRC received over $831 million in government grants, 62 percent of its reported revenue of over $1.34 billion. ¹⁶ Other donors include the Gates Foundation, George Soros’s Open Society Foundations, the Google Foundation, and the Howard G. Buffett Foundation. ^{17 18 19}

Other member organizations of the SBLISN include Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County, the Center for Employment Training, the Katharine and George Alexander Community Law Center, Pangea Legal Services, the Step Forward Foundation, and the Services, Immigrant Rights, and Education Network. ²⁰

Work Areas

United Coalition for Immigrant Services members provide direct legal assistance and education for immigrant communities and individuals through collaboration and referral processes. Coalition members provide immigrants with free or low-cost legal services to obtain temporary protected status, family visas, work permits, and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals renewals. Coalition members offer training events and community forums on immigration law and available resources to immigrant communities. ²¹

The coalition brings members together to collaborate on problems and address coordination across member organizations. It hosts community forums and trainings for immigrants and coordinates policy work on immigration-related issues at the local, state, and federal levels. ²²

Leadership

Alison Kamhi is the lead of the coalition. She is the legal director at the Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC). ²³ Kamhi earned a law degree from Harvard Law. She has worked at the ILRC since 2013. She was also an intern with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and a Skadden Foundation fellow with Catholic Charities and Bay Area Legal Aid. ²⁴