Alva (Susan) papers, 1970-2017

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Summary

Title:
Susan Alva papers
Dates:
1970-2017
Abstract:
Susan Alva, born in 1952 in New York City, is an immigration and labor attorney with a long career. Her career started in 1974 when she began working as a paralegal in the San Joaquin Valley with California Rural Legal Assistance. She then went on to work for the UFW, the Legal Aid Society of San Diego, the East Los Angeles Immigration Project at the Los Angeles Center for Law and Justice, Public Counsel's Legalization Appeals Project, the Immigration and Citizenship Project at CHIRLA, the Migration Policy and Resource Center at Occidental College, and the Immigrant Defenders Law Center. This collection consists of her professional papers and includes notes, ephemera, leaflets, publications, correspondence, handbooks and guides, clippings, reports and issues papers, newsletters, photographs, and t-shirts, among other things.
Extent:
31.5 Linear Feet (64 boxes)
Language:
English , Spanish; Castilian .
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Susan Alva papers, (CSRC.2019.008), Chicano Studies Research Center, University of California, Los Angeles.

Background

Scope and content:

This collection consists of the professional papers of immigration attorney Susan Alva. This includes her work in community organizing, CHIRLA, civic engagement, LGBTQ rights, women's rights, labor and workers' rights, cross-border collaborative projects, Prop 187, and legalization. Materials include notes, conference packets, ephemera, leaflets, publications, correspondence, notebooks, curriculum, handbooks and guides, clippings, reports and issues papers, press releases, pamphlets and newsletters, photographs, and t-shirts.

Biographical / historical:

Susan Alva was born in 1952 in New York City to Mexican and Dominican immigrant parents. In the early 1970s, she studied political science and community services at California State University Stanislaus where she was a founding member of the Minority Studies Department. In 1974, Alva began working as a paralegal and community worker in the San Joaquin Valley with California Rural Legal Assistance. She worked with them until 1976, when she started to work as a paralegal for the UFW, AFL-CIO in their Agricultural Labor Relations Task Force. During her time with the UFW she worked on their largest organizing and union election drive. After about a year, she transitioned to the Legal Aid Society of San Diego, where she worked as an INS-accredited paralegal in their immigration law unit. She continued to work for them through law school.

She received her juris doctor from Western State University College of Law in 1983 and was admitted to the California bar later that year. She continued working for the Legal Aid Society of San Diego until 1983. Alva then worked as the supervising attorney for the East Los Angeles Immigration Project at the Los Angeles Center for Law and Justice. From 1988-1992 she was the directing attorney for Public Counsel's Legalization Appeals Project.

She then served as director of the Immigration and Citizenship Project at CHIRLA until 2003. She was then the founder and director of the Migration Policy and Resource Center at Occidental College's Urban and Environmental Policy Institute in Los Angeles. The Center worked with grassroots immigrant organizations on migration policy issues and international migrant rights advocacy. In 2015, Alva co-founded the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, a nonprofit deportation defense law firm with offices in L.A., Riverside, Santa Ana and at the San Diego border.

Alva's legal career has included representing hundreds of immigrants and workers in immigration deportation defense, and labor issues. She was also involved in getting the short-handled hoe declared illegal in California's agricultural field, the deportation defense of the L.A. 8, the Riverside Sheriff's televised beating case, and the El Monte Thai garment worker's case. She has served on the Boards of the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, and the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance.

Her other projects have included being part of a delegation to the World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance in Durban, South Africa in Fall 2001, where she participated in preparation of a "shadow" report that included alternative policy proposals and highlighted connections between US public and private conduct abroad and migration flows. In November 1999, she participated in the Red de Estudios Para El Desarollo Rural, a week-long workshop attended by 30 US and Mexican academic, foundation, institutional and community migration experts sponsored by Rockefeller Foundation. The workshop was titled "Transnational Families: Mexican-United States Migration" and focused on effects of migration in both countries and working conditions of those migrants.

In August 1998 she provided information, statistics, and recommendations to the Los Angeles County Commission for Women regarding immigrant women's health. She was also a founding member of CA Latino Civil Rights in February 1994 which is a statewide umbrella group that promotes active civic participation among California Latinos and fosters policies that support the community. She also lectured for La Union Nacional de Juristas de Cuba in November 1991 on US immigration and naturalization law.

Acquisition information:
Gift of Susan Alva, 2019. Deed on file at the CSRC Library office.
Processing information:

Processed by Krystell Jimenez, Yesenia Roman-Lopez, and Mikayla Cardona, 2026.

Arrangement:

This collection has been arranged in the following series:
  • Series 1: Community organizing, civil society, and social justice, 1970-2017
  • Series 2: International immigration law and policy, 1989-2007
  • Series 3: National immigration law and policy, 1975-2011
  • Series 4: Workers' rights and labor movements, circa 1970-2011

These series are based on the major areas of focus throughout Susan Alva's career. However, due to the interrelated nature of these issues there may be very similar materials in different series. Materials have been kept foldered as they were foldered by Alva. Within each series folders are arranged in alphabetical order. This collection also included a set of graphic t-shirts which have been separated into each series based on the theme of the t-shirt.

Physical / technical requirements:

COLLECTION CONTAINS AUDIO, DIGITAL, AND AUDIO-VISUAL MATERIALS: Special equipment or further processing may be required for viewing or listening. Requests to use these materials must be made in advance. Please contact the library at librarian@chicano.ucla.edu.

Physical location:
COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE AT SLF. Advance notice required for access. Contact the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center Library and Archive for paging information. Researchers MUST make a research appointment through the CSRC Library's website
Material specific details:
This collection includes a large number of acronyms. For the sake of brevity those acronyms are defined here: AILA (American Immigration Lawyers Association) CRU (Civil Rights Unit) CHIRLA (Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights – Los Angeles) FFF (Four Freedom Fund) ILRC (Immigrant Legal Resource Center) IRWG (Immigrant Rights Working Group) KIWA (Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance) LAFL-RIO LAWF (Los Angeles Women's Foundation) MALDEF (Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund) MIWON (Multi-Ethnic Immigrant Workers Organizing Network) NALEO (National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials) NDLON (National Day Laborer Organizing Network) NIF (National Immigration Forum) NIRCF (National Immigration, Refugee, and Citizenship Forum) NLG (National Lawyers Guild) NNIRR (National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights) PCUN (Piñeros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste) SAN (South Asian Network) AWAZ (Voices Against Violence Unit, SAN) WLGI (Women's Lens on Global Issues) WCRX (World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance)
Rules or conventions:
DACS

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:
Finding aid prepared by Krystell Jimenez, 2026.
Sponsor:
This finding aid was made possible in part through funding from the Latina Futures 2050 Lab.
Date Encoded:
This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2026-05-05 12:13:02 -0700 .

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open for research. Advance requests can be made to CSRC Library staff via email. Some materials may be sensitive and require review before access is granted.

Terms of access:

Property rights to the physical object belong to the CSRC. Literary rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where the library does not hold the copyright. Contact the CSRC Library for additional information.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Susan Alva papers, (CSRC.2019.008), Chicano Studies Research Center, University of California, Los Angeles.

Location of this collection:
University of California, Los Angeles, Chicano Studies Research Center Library, 193 Haines Hall
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1544, US
Contact:
(310) 206-6052
librarian@chicano.ucla.edu
Website