Full Time Immigration Attorney Jobs in Raleigh, NC

About the ACLU of North Carolina
The ACLU of North Carolina (ACLU-NC) is an affiliate of the National ACLU. For 60 years, the ACLU-NC has worked in courts, legislatures, and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and laws of the United States. Whether it’s achieving full equality for LGBTQ+ people, working to transform our broken and racist criminal legal system, defending freedom of speech, religion, and the right to protest, or preserving the right to vote or the right to have an abortion, the ACLU takes up the toughest civil liberties cases and issues to defend all people from government abuse and overreach.
Two critical components of our work are uplifting the voices and leadership of impacted people and applying an anti-racist lens to all aspects of our internal and external functions including but not limited to our issue campaigns, recruitment and human resources, strategic planning, donor and volunteer relations, Board and committee processes, and deciding what cases to litigate. We are looking for candidates who share our commitment to our values.
The ACLU-NC brings together litigation, legislative advocacy, communications, and organizing strategies to empower communities and achieve our objectives in major issue areas including criminal law reform, voting rights, LGBTQ+ equality, reproductive freedom, and the rights of immigrants. With more than 40,000 members and supporters across the state, the ACLU-NC has a staff of more than 25 people with an office in Durham.
The Opportunity
The ACLU-NC Legal Foundation (ACLU-NCLF) seeks to hire a full-time, term-limited Staff Attorney to join our passionate and dedicated team. The Staff Attorney position will be limited to three (3) years and will focus on the civil rights of detained immigrants, particularly individuals who will be detained by ICE in a soon-to-be-opened facility in Winton, NC. The Staff Attorney will spend significant time in Winton, leading efforts to monitor conditions and establish a legal outreach program at the detention facility. The Staff Attorney will also lead efforts to identify and advocate for individuals who are being unlawfully detained by local law enforcement officials for immigration-related reasons.  In collaboration with ACLU-NC colleagues, the Staff Attorney will work to develop and conduct federal and state court litigation, as well as other legal advocacy to defend and enforce the constitutional rights of detained immigrants. Such work may include litigating habeas petitions and civil rights claims arising from over-detention or illegal detention conditions.
The Staff Attorney will work under the legal director’s supervision and in close collaboration with other attorneys, paralegals, law student interns, and co-counsel, as well as staff from the policy and advocacy, organizing, and communications departments. Staff Attorneys work in a fast-paced environment to address emerging and ongoing civil rights issues through fact-intensive investigation, legal advocacy including complex litigation, and community education. The ideal Staff Attorney will be able to work independently to respond quickly and urgently when necessary to investigate and advocate for detained immigrants, including engaging in extensive solo travel throughout the state and working beyond standard office hours when necessary to address time-sensitive matters. The Staff Attorney will be able to move fluidly from the courtroom to the community and will be able to work with diverse allies and coalitions to achieve our ambitious goals.
Key Responsibilities
You'll help us protect and advance the rights of all North Carolinians by: 

• Developing, leading, and independently executing a workplan focused on ensuring that detained individuals have access to legal information and advocacy, that detainees are not subject to unlawfully prolonged detention, and that detention conditions comply with federal and state law.
• Investigating, developing, and litigating high-impact civil rights cases in federal and state court to protect and expand the civil rights of detained immigrant North Carolinians. This includes conducting effective community outreach to impacted people; investigating possible civil rights violations; drafting and filing correspondence, pleadings, motions, and briefs; conducting written and oral discovery; negotiating and enforcing settlements; and presenting oral argument and evidence in hearings and trials.
• Developing and implementing non-litigation advocacy campaigns in partnership with colleagues and coalition partners who are not lawyers.
• Organizing and leading community education events and trainings to advance our strategic priorities. 
• Providing expert legal analysis of legislation, regulations, and legal research and strategy assistance in support of campaigns.
• Working with non-lawyer staff and coalition partners to implement multi-faceted advocacy campaigns.
• Representing the ACLU of North Carolina in coalition spaces.
• Preparing summaries and reports of legal issues and cases for the public, as well as ACLU membership, staff, and leadership.
• Serving as a spokesperson for the ACLU of North Carolina at public forums, meetings, and in the media.
• Providing administrative support in recruiting and managing interns and legal fellows as needed. Occasional other administrative support is required of all team members on an as-needed basis.
• Engaging in frequent travel within the state and working outside of standard office hours as needed to respond to time-sensitive matters. (Note that compensatory time off is available for excessively demanding work schedules.)