CASL Receives $2 Million Gift from the Sue Ling Gin Foundation Trust to Strengthen Immigration Justice Work

The gift builds on a relationship between CASL and the late Sue Ling Gin that began more than four decades ago, when she first gave young immigrant women from the community CASL serves their first jobs in this country. 

CHICAGO, IL, November 10, 2026. The Chinese American Service League (CASL) today announced a $2 million gift from the Sue Ling Gin Foundation Trust to support CASL’s Immigration Justice Initiative. The initiative provides legal help, citizenship support, newcomer stabilization, anti-hate response, and policy advocacy to immigrant families across the Chicago region and the country. 

The gift comes as immigrant-serving organizations nationwide face cuts to federal funding, more competition for philanthropic dollars, and immigration policy that can shift without warning. For the families who turn to CASL for help with legal status, housing, healthcare, and public benefits, that uncertainty raises the stakes of every case. 

CASL serves more than 7,400 clients a year across 209 ZIP codes in the Chicago region and nationwide. Nearly three-quarters of those clients report speaking no English or limited English, which is a key reason CASL delivers its legal, citizenship, and case management services in each client’s own language. 

“This gift means our clients can count on us, even when so much around them feels uncertain. Sue Ling Gin believed in this community before most people had ever heard of CASL, and that belief lives on through this foundation and this gift.”

Paul Luu, Chief Executive Officer, CASL  

Gin grew up in Aurora, Illinois, the daughter of Chinese immigrant parents who ran a small restaurant there called the Paradise Inn, and she began working alongside them as a child. That upbringing stayed with her. Gin’s connection to CASL predates the company that made her name: before Flying Food Group grew into an international airline catering business, she ran her first kitchen near Midway Airport, where she employed young Chinese immigrant women connected to CASL and gave many of them their first jobs in this country. That relationship continued for the rest of her life. The Sue Ling Gin Foundation Trust, established in 2015 to carry her giving forward, has remained one of CASL’s closest partners since, including a $10 million gift in 2023 that helped CASL expand its South Loop campus. This gift turns that same trust toward the families CASL serves today as they build the kind of fresh start Gin’s own parents once built in Aurora. 

“Sue’s parents started over in this country when they opened their restaurant in Aurora, and Sue grew up working right alongside them. She never forgot what that took, and she made sure this foundation would keep showing up for the families doing that same work today.”

David Cotton, Sue Ling Gin Foundation Trustee  

Through its Immigration Justice Initiative, CASL’s attorneys and case managers help immigrants with legal status and naturalization, its Welcoming Center connects new arrivals to housing, healthcare, and public benefits, its Anti-Hate Action Center supports survivors of hate incidents and leads Know Your Rights trainings, and its ChangeInSight initiative gathers community-level data now used by 90+ partner organizations nationwide. 

CASL describes its work, in part, as building belonging: making sure that no matter how recently someone arrived, or how well they speak English, they have a place here. The Sue Ling Gin Foundation’s gift helps make that possible for the newest generation of immigrants calling Chicago home. 

CASL extends its deep gratitude to the Sue Ling Gin Foundation Trust for its continued partnership and trust. 

Support CASL’s Immigration Justice Initiative, or learn more about our programs at casl.org.