Jennie Pasquarella is director of immigrants' rights and senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Southern California. She joined ACLU SoCal in 2008.
Ms. Pasquarella leads the ACLU of California’s statewide immigrants’ rights project, which, among other things, works to curtail abusive immigration and border enforcement practices, to end all forms of immigration detention, and to ensure access to effective counsel in criminal and immigration proceedings.
Her personal work focuses on litigation and policy advocacy at the intersections of immigration enforcement and the criminal justice systems, and citizenship and national security policies. She has specialized in the federal government’s use of local law enforcement in its deportation efforts, leading national and statewide litigation and policy efforts. She has also led national advocacy and litigation addressing discrimination of Muslim applicants for immigration benefits, the deportation of U.S. veterans, and abusive immigration raids, among other projects.
Prior to joining ACLU SoCal, Ms. Pasquarella worked as a staff lawyer/fellow for the ACLU Women’s Rights Project and the Center for Reproductive Rights.
She is a graduate of Barnard College and Georgetown University Law Center, where she earned her J.D. with a certificate in refugee and humanitarian emergencies and was a Public Interest Law Scholar.
