ACLU Lawyer Wins Genius Grant

For his work seeking due process for immigrants facing deportation, lawyer Ahilan Arulanantham was named one of the 23 winners of this year’s MacArthur “genius” grants. He will receive $625,000 from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, with no strings attached. Arulanantham is the director of advocacy and legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. He has litigated landmark cases to expand immigrant detainees’ access to legal representation, and limiting government power to hold them indefinitely.