Co-Founder and Executive Director Emerita
Cheryl Little was the Executive Director and co-founder of the Americans for Immigrant Justice, formerly Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center. Her extensive involvement in immigration issues dates to 1985 when, as an honors law school graduate, she began working at the Haitian Refugee Center in Miami, becoming one of the nation’s leading advocates for Haitians in the U.S. Since 1996, Americans for Immigrant Justice has provided free legal help to immigrants of all nationalities and strives to protect immigrants’ basic rights. The Miami Herald has described AI Justice as, “a nationally respected powerhouse on behalf of society’s most vulnerable”. Cheryl was named one of the 2012 Most Effective Lawyers in the Public Interest category by the Daily Business Review, was selected as a Legal Legend by the 11th Judicial Circuit Historical Society’s Board of Trustees and in 2011 named to Miami’s 100 Most Influential People by Poder Hispanic. Ms. Little has testified before numerous congressional committees, as well as the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, the Organization of American States, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission.
She served as Vice Chair, American Bar Association, Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities’ Committee on Rights of Immigrants; Member, American Bar Association’s Advisory Committee on Immigration Pro Bono Development and Bar Activation Project; and served on the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission’s Immigration Detention Standards Committee. Ms. Little has appeared on 60 Minutes, Nightline, PBS’s News Hour with Jim Lehrer, Frontline, The Oprah Winfrey Show and CNN. She was named “Person of the Week” by ABC. Her most recent article, The War on Immigrants: Stories from the Front Lines, was published in a special Summer 2011 edition of Americas Quarterly.