As one of our most dedicated supporters, friend, I wanted you to be one of the first to know — the NILC board of directors has appointed Kica Matos to serve as the next president of NILC.

Kica’s visionary leadership at the helm of NILC is crucial at this pivotal moment for the immigrants’ rights movement. Immigrants are vital to America yet are too often the targets of politically motivated attacks and injustices. Under Kica’s leadership, our team will continue to help build a nation where all of us — regardless of how much money we have, what we look like, or where we were born — have the freedom to thrive.

A little bit about Kica: She started out her career as an organizer and human rights advocate, working with communities on the ground to achieve pivotal wins, including the repeal of the death penalty in Connecticut. Later, she served in key leadership positions at Vera Institute of Justice and Community Change where she fought for immigrant justice and civil rights. Additionally, she served as deputy mayor in the city of New Haven, Connecticut, where she oversaw the city’s community programs and launched new initiatives including prisoner re-entry and youth and immigrant integration. She has also worked as a litigator in state and federal court.

For the last several months, Kica has served NILC as executive vice president of programs and strategy. In May, she will step into the role of president to continue the organization’s decades-long fight for immigrants’ rights.

Before we sign off, friend, we want to say two special thank-yous: First, to Sara K. Gould, our interim executive director, who stepped into this role following the departure of our long-time executive director, Marielena Hincapié. We are incredibly grateful for Sara’s work over the past six months, and for her commitment to the mission of the organization, to the staff, and to advancing the rights of low-income immigrants in our nation.

And finally, to you, friend: Your support is critical to the work we do every day, and we look forward to having you by our side in this new chapter as we work to strengthen workers’ rights, advocate for education for all, push Congress to pass a pathway to citizenship for immigrant youth, and so much more.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Angela Banks
Board Chair
National Immigration Law Center