Comprised of highly passionate and incredibly talented teams of attorneys, paralegals, interns, and volunteers, Las Americas is a nationally known immigrant advocacy center dedicated to providing
high-quality legal services to low-income immigrants and asylum seekers from around
the world. Based in El Paso, Texas, this 501(c)3 non-profit was founded in 1987 by two
El Paso human rights activists, Ruben Garcia and Delia Gomez, co-founders of
Annunciation House, who recognized an unmet need to provide legal services for a
large influx of Central Americans fleeing their countries in the 1980s in search of refuge.
By the mid-1990’s, Las Americas began assisting women and children detained by the
INS through its Justice for Women and Children Project and representing battered
undocumented women under the Battered Immigrant Women Project. Today the
organization has a threefold focus: 1) Las Americas Mexico, which works with migrants
subject to U.S. policies and practices that either deny them entry into the U.S. to ask for
asylum or force them back into Mexico; 2) Community Migrant Advocacy Program,
which includes naturalization, crime victim services, VAWA services, and DACA
services, among others; and 3) the Detained Deportation Defense Program, which
serves asylum seekers and other migrants currently being held in CBP and ICE
detention.
Since its founding, Las Americas has served nearly 50,000 persons, while advocating
for a robust asylum system, working to reunify separated families, and calling out
abusive immigration practices. Yet, despite the increasing migration crisis and legal
needs of those arriving at the El Paso ports of entry seeking asylum, Las Americas
continues to be one of the few non-profit legal service providers assisting low-income
immigrants in this border region.
