I am an lawyer whose practice focuses on deportation defense, family-based immigration, and humanitarian immigration cases.  Certified as a specialist in immigration law by the State Bar of California, I have represented thousans of people in completed immigration matters since 2005.  I have experience in cancellation of removal (hardship-based deportation defense) for families with special needs children, LGBT, domestic violence, and child abuse-related asylum applications, the impact of crimes on immigration status, defenses for immigrant crime victims, appellate matters.  I have represented individuals in cases ranging from "simple" marriage-based green card applications to federal court litigation involving prolonged detention, delayed immigation applications, and the unlawful denial of immigration and naturaliazation applications.

I am a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA).  I have spoken at several AILA events, including the 2018 AILA Annual Conference, on the topic of family-based immigration, and the 2018 AILA Midwest Regional Conference, on the topic of Aggravated Felonies (a criminal-immigration area).

I am fluent in Spanish and Portuguese, and conversant in French.  Prior to obtaining my law degree from U.C. Hastings in San Francisco, I studied linguistics at U.C. Berkeley and the University of Barcelona.  I was drawn to the field of immigration law by my interest in policy issues such as bilingual education and also by my belief that immigration is a civil rights issue.