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This article shows to what extent the work of activists on behalf of illegal immigrants has an ambiguous relation with state institutions. While intended to influence immigration policies and accompany and defend immigrants, the work of activists is at the same time designed and conditioned by these very same policies. Non-profit organizations thus have to adapt their activities to the political context that structures their action frame. As a consequence, the nature of the activists’ work evolves towards a more routinized, law-centered, individualized and formalized orientation. The article then focuses on how this law-centered orientation makes non-profit organizations and state institutions less distant from one another. Immigration policies are therefore enforced together with, and partly by, non-profit organizations. These evolutions create a process of institutionalization of the cause on behalf of illegal immigrants. The analysis is based on observations led during local administrative commissions and at the offices of non-profit organizations.