Taking action to combat the racial profiling of immigrants and refugees, as well as discriminatory detention and deportation policies, and the wage-slave working conditions of migrant workers and non-status people — while engaging in the struggle to maintain their own livelihoods and resist war, occupation and displacement — the grassroots anti-colonial immigrant and refugee rights movement No One Is Illegal finds itself very much engaged in the struggle for people’s democratic, social and economic rights.
Most of NOII’s organizers hail from immigrant / refugee backgrounds (South Asian, Persian, Latina/o, Arab and Middle Eastern), and are predominantly women. While taking action to combat racial profiling, detention and deportation, NOII organizers provide political and legal advocacy in defense of families and individuals in the refugee determination process — by drafting legal submissions, organizing multilingual community forums, and fighting against the prospect of deportation through direct action at immigration offices, detention centres and airports.
One of the principle struggles in which No One Is Illegal is engaged is the Campaign for Regularization, the movement to have all persons living without legal immigration status in Canada (non status migrant and immigrants) afforded permanent resident or landed immigrant status.
Restoring Legal Aid Funding in British Columbia is another key campaign that No One Is Illegal has launched. Out of the $83 million that the provincial government cut from the Legal Aid services budget in 2001, 40% came by eliminating legal services to marginalized communities. In 2003 - 2004, Legal Aid funding for immigration cases totalled $4.9 million. In this past year, an agreement between the provincial and federal governments provided only $1.7 million in funding for immigration cases, resulting in the implementation of a profiling-based “merit-screening” process.
Operating an office in Vancouver — located at 714 - 207 West Hastings — the work undertaken by No One Is Illegal comes at an enormous cost. While planning direct action, producing educational materials, and raising emergency funds, No One Is Illegal receives no funding from government, and none of its organizers constitute paid staff.
For more information about No One Is Illegal — or to become a sustaining member, or provide a donation — go to their website, e-mail the organizers directly at