The National Immigrant Justice Center is a program of Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights. Heartland Alliance advances the human rights and responds to the human needs of endangered populations – particularly the poor, the isolated and the displaced – by providing comprehensive and respectful services and promoting solutions leading to a more just global society.

Heartland Alliance was founded as Travelers Aid in 1888. In the mid-1960s, the organization merged with the Immigrants' Protective League, which derived from Jane Addams’ Hull House Movement, and operated as Travelers and Immigrants Aid for many years. In the 1980s, the organization expanded to serve others in need. To reflect this expansion, the organization became Heartland Alliance in the mid-1990s.