As a partner at Saev Hernandez Immigration Practice, my focus of work includes permanent residence through employment, particularly the labor certification process. I also work on family-based immigration and humanitarian cases, such as U visas, waivers, deferred action for childhood arrivals, and special paths to citizenship. I speak and write on topics including the immigration regulatory environment in Tennessee, immigration options for children, citizenship, and comprehensive immigration reform. I volunteer for the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) as the supervising attorney for its Welcoming Tennessee Naturalization Clinics. 

I am fluent in Spanish and speak the language at home. My husband is an immigrant from Mexico and we have personally gone through the permanent residence process, including a provisional waiver application and consular processing. In part due to my own experience, I offer thorough and thoughtful advice to families facing possible separation due to the immigration system. 

I became an immigrant advocate in 1999-2000 while working as an AmeriCorps*VISTA volunteer at the Political Asylum Project of Austin. I first pursued the job because it offered me the chance to practice Spanish at work, but quickly found myself immersed in the foreign language that is immigration jargon. I supported volunteers in a clinic setting and gave human rights presentations to immigrants on the San Antonio immigration court detained docket. I then worked as an immigration paralegal in Austin, Texas for several years and applied for law school knowing immigration practice had me hooked. Following law school, I practiced law as an attorney at Rose Immigration Law Firm for seven years.