Catholic Legal Immigration Network
Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (commonly referred to as CLINIC) is the US's largest network of non-profit immigration activist programs. In its 1986 pastoral statement "Together a New People", the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) observed that the church's ministry to immigrants reflects the "biblical understanding of the justice of God reaching out to all peoples and rectifying the situation of the poor, the orphans, the widows, the disadvantaged, and especially in the Old Testament, the alien and the stranger." Two years later, USCCB established CLINIC as a legally distinct 501(c)(3) non-profit organization to support a rapidly growing need for community-based programs dedicated to serve indigent and low-income immigrants. CLINIC's network originally comprised seventeen diocesan affiliates and has since increased to over 200 Catholic and community-based immigration programs with 290 field offices in 47 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. In addition, the network affiliates employ roughly 1,200 Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) accredited attorneys who serve over 600,000 low-income immigrants each year. CLINIC affiliated agencies represent low-income immigrants without reference to their race, religion, gender, ethnic group, or other distinguishing characteristics. Mission statement "Embracing the Gospel value of welcoming the stranger, CLINIC promotes the dignity and protects