Ming Tanigawa-Lau is a Justice Catalyst fellow and litigation staff attorney working in the Systemic Reform Department at the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project (ASAP).
Prior to law school, Ming worked as a child advocate at a domestic violence shelter and as a family law paralegal with the Legal Aid Society of Hawaiʻi. She also lived in Trujillo, Peru, teaching music at Arpegio Peru, a community-based music school.
Ming earned her J.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law, with specializations in Critical Race Studies and Public Interest Law and Policy. During law school, Ming spent time in Tijuana, Mexico, working with asylum seekers subjected to the Remain in Mexico program and other inhumane immigration regulations. Within Los Angeles, Ming has worked with immigrant survivors of domestic abuse and trafficking, and as part of a broad coalition pushing for stronger sanctuary policies in Los Angeles County.
Ming is from Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, and is passionate about the rights of immigrants and Indigenous peoples and where they overlap. Ming speaks English and Spanish and is currently based in Los Angeles, California.