National Immigration Law Center Announces Key Leadership Hires

Nation’s leading immigrants’ rights organization welcomes new chief operating officer, director of communications

LOS ANGELES — The National Immigration Law Center (NILC) announced today the addition of two senior staff to its leadership team: Adnan Bokhari will serve as NILC’s chief operating officer, and Victoria Ballesteros has joined the team as NILC’s director of communications.

Adnan Bokhari, Chief Operating Officer (COO)
Bokhari will serve on NILC’s Executive Leadership Team and play a key role implementing NILC’s strategic priorities, including advancing racial equity through organizational systems and policies. He will lead the finance, human resources, information technology, administration, and development teams. Bokhari will join NILC on March 2, 2020, and will be based in Washington, DC.

“We are excited to have Adnan take the helm of our operations at this critical time in NILC’s history, as the organization experiences unprecedented growth and executes multiple transformational initiatives to advance our vision for immigration in this country,” stated Marielena Hincapié, executive director of NILC. “Adnan will play a key role in moving our work forward while creating an organizational infrastructure to support our continued success,” continued Hincapié.

“I am thrilled to be joining the leading immigrant rights organization at this important time for the movement and our nation. I migrated to the United States at the age of 15 and experienced first-hand the arduous path that millions of low-income immigrants traverse in pursuit of a better future. Being a part of NILC’s amazingly talented team offers a distinguished opportunity to advance its mission by utilizing my personal and professional background,” stated Bokhari.

Bokhari is a certified public accountant and brings 20 years of finance and operations experience in the nonprofit sector to NILC. He most recently served as CFO and COO for a national anti-poverty organization based in Washington, DC. Bokhari has gained expertise in leading change and garnered a reputation for building resilient organizations. He is also the first Pakistani-American to be elected as chairman of the board of directors of Golden Key International Honour Society, the world’s largest collegiate honor society. He also serves on the board of Virginia Community Colleges System (VCCS) appointed by the governor of Virginia, and is chair of the Personnel Committee of the VCCS board.

Victoria Ballesteros, Director of Communications
Ballesteros joined NILC’s Senior Leadership Team in January and will develop strategic communication initiatives for the organization. She is based in Los Angeles, and leads staff in Los Angeles and Washington, DC.

“We are elated to welcome Victoria Ballesteros to the NILC team, where she will help grow the visibility and reach of NILC’s work on behalf of immigrants,” stated Hincapié. “So much of what we do requires effective communication strategy, and Victoria brings an incredible blend of strategic and tactical experience to NILC that will support our continued growth and success.”

“My parents are immigrants from Mexico, and I am intimately familiar with the injustices faced by those coming to this country in search of a better life. I cannot think of a more meaningful way to honor their sacrifices than to join NILC in its efforts to protect and advance the rights and opportunities of immigrants, particularly at this time in our nation’s history when immigrants are under relentless attacks by the Trump administration,” stated Ballesteros.

Ballesteros has more than 15 years of experience leading communication efforts in the nonprofit and public sectors. She has worked for the U.S. House of Representatives, the Children’s Defense Fund, Long Beach Redevelopment Agency, California’s Senate Majority Leader, and The SCAN Foundation. Ms. Ballesteros has a master’s degree in communication management from the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, and a bachelor’s degree in political science from the California State University, Fullerton, with a minor in Chicano studies. She is fluent in Spanish.

ABOUT NILC

Founded in 1979, the National Immigration Law Center is the leading advocacy organization in the U.S. exclusively dedicated to defending and advancing the rights and opportunities of low-income immigrants and their loved ones. NILC’s mission is grounded in the belief that everyone living in the U.S. — regardless of race, gender/gender identity, immigration status, or economic status — should have equal access to justice, resources, and educational and economic opportunities that enable them to achieve their full human potential. NILC is committed to advancing its mission — which intersects race, immigration status, and class — through a racial, economic, and gender justice and equity orientation.

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Fight Fear With Facts, NILC Urges As Trump Public Charge Policy Takes Effect

WASHINGTON, DC — The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Department of State today began implementing the Trump administration’s new “public charge” regulations, a cornerstone of the administration’s attempts to redefine the U.S. immigration system to disenfranchise communities of color and favor the wealthy. The new policy dramatically alters the criteria used in adjudicating applications for lawful permanent residence to make it much more difficult for low- and moderate-income families to overcome the new test.

The new public charge test reviews numerous factors in determining whether an applicant is likely to use an expanded list of public benefits at any time in the future. Few people who are subject to the public charge test qualify for the programs covered by the regulations, but the regulations’ criteria — including new thresholds for income, age, health conditions, and English language proficiency to be weighed in the test — will dramatically reduce the diversity of immigrants to the U.S. As illustrated in a new NILC report released today, fear and confusion over the regulations have already harmed the health and well-being of immigrant families — overwhelmingly families of color — all over the country.

Marielena Hincapié, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center, issued the following statement:

“Today, as the implementation of the Trump administration’s pernicious public charge policy weighs heavily on the minds of many immigrants and their families, all of us who value the diversity of our nation and share a vision for a more just and equitable country must strengthen our resolve to keep fighting to uphold our values.

“Over the past three years, the Trump administration has used threats, false starts, exaggeration, and misinformation about public charge to deliberately spread fear and confusion among immigrant communities navigating an already dysfunctional system. These tactics are designed to maximize this cruel new policy’s harmful impact. As a result, we’ve heard far too many reports of families avoiding crucial economic support programs vital to their children and loved ones’ well-being, even before the policy went into effect.

“Faced with these kinds of attacks, we must arm ourselves and our communities with reliable information. Fear is Trump’s weapon of choice, and facts are families’ best defense.

“All of us can also use our voice to fight back against these regulations. Let your elected officials at the local, state, and federal level know that you oppose these hateful efforts to radically restrict our legal immigration system to only the wealthy and stigmatize use of government assistance programs and the immigrant communities who may need an extra hand in order to get on their feet. This policy may be in the rule books today, but future administrations can and should remove it immediately.

“This fight is about the country we want. We must reject Trump’s attempts to redefine who we are and who belongs here. We must keep striving for a country that welcomes newcomers and where each of us — no matter the size of our pocketbook, what we look like, or where we were born — has the ability to fulfill our potential grounded in the same spirit of opportunity that has fostered generations of success stories throughout American history.

“We urge voters who share this vision of a diverse country where everyone has the freedom to thrive to make your voices heard this November in this most consequential election.”

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Individuals and service providers seeking more information about the new “public charge” rule should visit ProtectingImmigrantFamilies.org.