Ahilan Arulanantham

Ahilan Arulanantham is Professor from Practice and co-director of the Miñana Family Center for Immigration Law and Policy at the UCLA School of Law. His expertise includes asylum and the border; immigration detention; temporary protective status; and state and local immigration policymaking.

He has successfully litigated a number of cases involving immigrants’ rights, including Franco-Gonzalez v. Holder, the first case to establish a federal right to appointed counsel for any group of immigrants; Jennings v. Rodriguez, which secured the due process rights of immigrants jailed for years while litigating their deportation cases; and, Fazaga v.FBI, on behalf of Americans of the Muslim faith who were targeted by the federal government for surveillance because of their religion.

Arulanantham has aruged four times before the United States Supreme Court, including in April 2026 on behalf Syrian TPS holders in Mullin v. Dahlia Doe. He has also testified before the United States Congress on three occasions.

He is the co-creator and co-faculty director of the Mapping Deportations project, which helps tell the history, patterns and practice of immigration enforcement in the United States.

To reach Arulanantham, email him at [email protected].