Deputy Director of Programs and Campaigns
Office: Los Angeles
Shiu-Ming Cheer has over 25 years of experience in immigrant rights and social justice issues which began with student organizing and activism. Her first civil disobedience was in resistance to the U.C. Regents voting to end affirmative action. She graduated from U.C. Berkeley with a double major in Ethnic Studies and English Literature and a minor in Asian American Studies, and from the Epstein Program in Public Interest Law and Policy at UCLA School of Law.
After law school, Shiu-Ming worked at the intersection of immigrant rights, criminal reform, and anti-state violence work. She held the positions of Soros Justice Fellow and Managing Attorney at the Catholic Legal Immigration Network’s Los Angeles Detention Project, and was a Children’s Attorney at the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project in Arizona. In those roles, she represented over 800 immigrants facing deportation. She was also the Civil Rights Coordinator at South Asian Network, where she worked in the areas of immigration, LGBTIQ rights, hate crimes/discrimination, police brutality, workers’ rights, and tenants’ rights, and a Staff Attorney at Neighborhood Legal Services, where she provided direct legal services to recipients of public benefits.
At the National Immigration Law Center, Shiu-Ming was the Director of Movement Building and Strategic Partnerships. During her time there she engaged in administrative advocacy, legislative advocacy, and coalition-building on the local, state, and federal levels; litigated against anti-immigrant laws in federal courts; and provided trainings, technical assistance, and webinars for a range of audiences.
Shiu-Ming has served as a Lecturer and Adjunct Professor at UCLA School of Law. She co-taught “An Introduction to Public Interest Law & Policy” class and co-taught the Immigrants’ Rights Policy Clinic from 2020-21.
Apart from her day jobs, Shiu-Ming has continuously participated in organizing projects, campaigns, and coalitions. This includes leadership roles in all-volunteer groups organizing Asian American workers in the San Gabriel Valley and Chinatown residents, as well as with the Democratic Socialists of America’s LA Chapter. She has served on the Boards of Khmer Girls in Action and the Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance (KIWA) and is currently on the Board of the Filipino Migrant Center.
She has received awards for her legal and community work from the National Lawyers Guild – LA, UCLA School of Law’s Public Interest Program, the Long Beach Immigrant Rights Coalition, and KIWA, as well as for her work on the LA Justice Fund and LA Raids Response Network. In her spare time, she enjoys traveling, hiking, discovering new places to eat, and admiring art.