Bio
Michael Tan is a Deputy Director for the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project (IRP). His practice includes litigation and advocacy relating to immigration detention, immigrants' access to education, and the rights of undocumented young people. He is a graduate of Harvard College and the Yale Law School and also holds a Master's Degree in Comparative Literature from New York University. After law school, Michael clerked for the Honorable M. Margaret McKeown of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and worked at IRP as Skadden Fellow and a Liman Public Interest Fellow. In 2014, he was awarded a California Lawyer of the Year Award in Immigration Law for his work on Rodriguez v. Robbins, a class action lawsuit challenging the prolonged detention of immigrants without bond hearings. Michael was awarded a Best Lawyers Under 40 Award by the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association in 2016, and was also named a Best LGBT Lawyer Under the Age of 40 by the National LGBT Bar Association in 2017.
Featured work
Aug 18, 2009
Aleo’s Story: A Refugee and Single Father Is Locked Up for Five Months Before Winning His Immigration Case
Aug 4, 2009
No End in Sight: Immigrants Locked Up for Years Without Hearings
Jul 13, 2009
Longtime Legal Resident Finally Gets His Day in Court
May 4, 2009
Mentally Disabled Immigrants Deserve Due Process