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Jacqueline L. Aguilar
Senior Staff Attorney – Immigration Program Jacqueline is a Senior Staff Attorney in the Removal Defense Project. Jacqueline has vast experience working with asylum seekers, unaccompanied minors, victims of domestic violence, and low-income communities, providing advice and representation in various proceedings such as housing court matters, family court matters, and immigration. Prior to joining Catholic Migration Services, Jacqueline worked as a staff attorney at Legal Services of the Hudson Valley, Legal Aid Society of Northeastern NY, Catholic Charities Community Services, and Immigration Legal Services of Long Island.
Jacqueline is the daughter of immigrants from El Salvador, an avid reader, and musician. She graduated from New York Law School in 2010 and earned her bachelor’s degree in Childhood Education and English from Manhattanville College in 2006.
Jacqueline is admitted to practice law in New York and is fluent in Spanish.
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Sr. Joan Anzalone
Immigration Counselor, DOJ Accredited Representative – Immigration Program Sr. Joan Anzalone is an Immigration Counselor. She assists clients by preparing applications for Adjustments of Status, Naturalization, Green Card and Visa extensions. She also participates in outreach activities in parishes and community organizations. Prior to working at Catholic Migration Services, Sr. Joan was a social worker for communities in the South Bronx, the Lower East Side of Manhattan and in the Dominican Republic. Her work with these communities motivated her desire to work directly with immigrants because she wanted to help them feel welcomed in their country. Sr. Joan attended Fordham University where she studied Sociology and Education. She received her Masters in Social Work from Fordham University. Sr. Joan is fluent in Spanish.
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Xiomara Bustamante
Senior Immigration Counselor – Immigration Program Xiomara Bustamante is a Senior Immigration Counselor. She assists clients by preparing applications for Adjustment of Status, Citizenship, Petitions for the Freedom of Information Act disclosure and Removal of Conditional Residence. For clients who qualify, Xiomara ensures that they understand their right to access to public social benefits. Prior to becoming an Immigration Counselor Xiomara was an administrative assistant at Catholic Migration for 4 years. Xiomara enjoys the variation in her day that comes from the diversity of cases she manages. She delights in giving clients thorough explanations of their rights during their consultations. She is inspired by her client’s perseverance during times of difficulty and she uses this as motivation to exhaust all of her efforts to help enhance each client’s experience with the organization. Xiomara attended Brooklyn College where she studied Computer Science. Xiomara is fluent in Spanish.
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Marlon Campeche
Staff Attorney – Immigration Program Marlon Campeche is a staff attorney working for the Removal Defense Project at Catholic Migration Services. Marlon graduated from the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University in May 2019, where he participated in the Immigration Justice Clinic as a student attorney representing indigent immigrant clients. Marlon has worked with asylum seekers and unaccompanied minors through legal internships at My Sisters’ Place and Safe Passage Project. He speaks fluent Spanish. As the son of immigrants from Mexico living in New York, Marlon sees working at Catholic Migration Services as an excellent opportunity to display his skills and contribute to his community.
Marlon is admitted to practice law in New York.
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Marisol Canales
Supervising Immigration Counselor, DOJ Accredited Representative – Immigration Program Marisol Canales is a Supervising Immigration Counselor. She assists clients by preparing applications for Adjustments of Status, Naturalization, Green Card, VAWA, DACA, and RI Visa extensions. She also participates in outreach activities in parishes and community organizations. Prior to working at Catholic Migration Marisol was a receptionist and later an immigration counselor at Emerald Isle Immigration Center. She also worked as an assistant to the Director of Faith Formation at St. Bartholomew Parish in Elmhurst. She enjoys providing direct assistance to immigration because the information and resources gives clients the chance to live a less restrictive life. She is inspired by the personal connections she feels with her clients and by their hard work and perseverance. Her dedication to her clients is fostered by the knowledge that she will be an everlasting part of their life. Marisol attended Universidad del Istmo in Panama where she studied Information Systems. She is a DOJ accredited representative and is fluent in Spanish.
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Staff Attorney – Immigration Program Ghada is a Staff Attorney and Immigrant Justice Corps Fellow with the Removal Defense Project at Catholic Migration Services. Ghada is a Texas native and graduated in May 2021 with dual degrees in Law and Global Policy Studies from the University of Texas School of Law and the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs. She is passionate about serving marginalized communities. She aims to leverage her skillsets in legislative lawyering, immigration, civil rights, and social justice lawyering to uplift those she serves. Ghada has interned for the Texas Supreme Court and clerked for the Texas Civil Rights Project, Open Society Justice Initiative, Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, and RAICES. She also served as staff editor at the Journal of Civil Liberties and Civil Rights and staff editor at the Journal of Law and Technology at Texas. She is a 2017 Rotary Education Scholar, having studied Migration and Refugee Studies at the American University in Cairo. She is a native Arabic speaker, an artist, and avid reader. Ghada is admitted to practice law in Texas and is seeking bar admission in New York.
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Christopher Holtz
Supervising Attorney – Immigration Program Christopher Holtz is a supervising attorney in the Removal Defense Project, where he defends asylees and noncitizens in removal proceedings in U.S. Immigration Court and before U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. He also represents clients who are affirmatively filing for immigration benefits in our Immigration Legal Services Program. In his work, Chris strives to help clients who otherwise cannot afford legal representation to navigate the complex immigration laws of the U.S.
Prior to joining our staff in 2012, Chris served as a legal intern in the organizations Immigrant Tenant Advocacy Program from 2009-2010. He graduated from St. John’s University School of Law in 2011, and earned his bachelor’s degree in political science from the University at Buffalo in 2008. During law school Chris worked with Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, where he provided legal services to low-income artists.
Chris is admitted to practice law in New York.
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Isadora Jaffee
Staff Attorney – Immigration Program Isadora Jaffee is a staff attorney with the Removal Defense Project at Catholic Migration Services. Isadora graduated from City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law in May 2021, where she was the chair of the International Law Society and held leadership positions in several noncitizen justice groups. There she also represented under supervision an asylum client for CUNY Law’s Immigrant and Noncitizen Rights Clinic (INRC) and worked on three civil rights cases as a part of CUNY Law’s Creating Law Enforcement Accountability and Responsibility (CLEAR) clinic. Before joining Catholic Migration Services, she interned in The New York Immigrant Family Unity Project (NYIFUP) unit of The Legal Aid Society and the Immigration unit of Prisoners’ Legal Services. Isadora also worked part-time at Queens Defenders and Legal Outreach Inc. As a baby and between her time in college and law school, Isadora lived in Japan. She was an English teacher in various public schools for three years and later a research fellow, producing research on the US Occupation’s attitude and policies towards migrants in Japan and the lasting effects today. She also worked in immigration legal service organizations in Tokyo.
Isadora speaks Japanese and some Spanish and is admitted to practice law in New York.
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Legal Assistant – Immigration Program Hannah is the legal assistant for the Removal Defense Project and is currently serving as a volunteer with the Mercy Volunteer Corp. She graduated from Point Loma Nazarene University with a B.A. in political science and a minor in Spanish. Due in party to her family’s story, immigration was a consistent theme throughout her studies, which included studying abroad in Argentina.
Hannah is bilingual in English and Spanish.
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José M. León
Supervising Attorney, Naturalization – Immigration Program José M. León supervises the Naturalization practice at Catholic Migration Services, including naturalization applications and requests for certificates of citizenship for those who derived or acquired citizenship through their parents. José also works as a senior staff attorney in the Removal Defense Project, which represents clients in removal proceedings in Immigration Court. He helps clients with defensive asylum claims, defensive Violence Against Women Act petitions, Cancellation of Removal for Non-Permanent Resident applications, U-Visa Petitions, T-Visa Petitions, and Special Immigrant Juvenile Status Petitions in Family Court and with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
José is a graduate of Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and holds a B.A. in Economics and History from Northwestern University. Prior to joining Catholic Migration Services, José interned at Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project in Arizona, the Immigration Unit at Legal Aid Society in Manhattan, and completed the year-long immigration Justice Clinic at Cardozo Law.
José grew up in San José, Costa Rica and Barcelona, Spain. He Speaks Spanish, Catalan, French and German. José is admitted to practice law in New York.
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Lynn Neugebauer
Supervising Attorney – Immigration Program Lynn Neugebauer is the Supervising Attorney for the Removal Defense Project. Before joining Catholic Migration Services, she was the Director of the Safe Horizon Immigration Law Project, a staff attorney representing immigrants at the Gay Men’s Health Crisis, staff attorney at two small immigration law firms, and an attorney at the National Labor Relations Board.
She went to Brooklyn Law School and NYU undergrad. Admitted to the New York Bar and the federal courts here, Lynn spent a little over three years as an Administrative Law Judge doing hearings and adjudicating claims for individuals seeking disability benefits from the Social Security Administration.
Lynn is bilingual, speaking English and Spanish and is conversational in French and Russian. She is admitted to practice law in New York.
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Raluca Oncioiu
Managing Attorney – Immigration Program Raluca manages the three immigration programs – removal defense, affirmative, and naturalization – at Catholic Migration services, and also works directly with clients. She hails from Romania, where her parents emigrated from in the early eighties. Prior to joining Catholic Migration Services in late 2021, she directed the immigration legal services and immigration hotline departments at catholic Charities Community Services. Raluca is a graduate of Tufts University, the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and New York University School of Law. Raluca is admitted to practice law in New York and is fluent in Romanian and conversational in Italian.
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Samantha Pascal
Naturalization Coordinator – Immigration Program Samantha is the Naturalization Coordinator at Catholic Migration Services. She received her B.A. in Human Rights from Columbia University in 2018. As a Haitian Immigrant, Samantha has always been passionate about advocating for immigrant rights. Her passion led her to Immigrant Justice Corps where she was offered a two-year fellowship as a Community Fellow. As a fellow, she became a partial BIA Accredited Representative and placed at the Brooklyn Central Public Library where she provided direct legal service to immigrants seeking affirmative relief. Samantha is Fluent in French and Haitian Creole.
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Andrea B. Sánchez
Immigration Paralegal – Immigration Program Andrea is the Paralegal for the Removal Defense Project. Prior to joining staff, she served as a Mercy Corp Volunteer in the organization’s Naturalization Team. She was proudly born and raised in Michigan by immigrant parents who migrated to the United States from Mexico. Since the age of 10, she has aspired to attend law school and specialize in the field of immigration. She graduated from Albion College in 2019, where she studied political science, mathematics, and public service. During her time at Albion, she worked at a small family law firm in Michigan, volunteered with a local non-profit filling out Medicaid applications for low-income families, and interned at a refugee center during her time studying abroad in Athens, Greece. Andrea is a native Spanish speaker.
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Jeanne Sanon
Senior Immigration Counselor, DOJ Accredited Representative – Immigration Program Jeanne Sanon is a Senior Immigration Counselor. She assists clients by preparing applications for Adjustment of Status, Naturalization, Green Card, VAWA, DACA and RI Visa extensions. Three years prior to working at Catholic Migration Services Jeanne taught civics and adult literacy at the Empowerment Centre for Caribbean Immigrants. Jeanne was exposed to the immigrant experience from a very young age. This encounter fostered a deep sense of responsibility to empower the immigrant community, especially Haitian immigrants. The passion for her work is sustained by her belief that individual achievement is most satisfactory when a community has access to the same opportunities. Jeanne is motivated to reach her highest potential only if her community can achieve theirs as well. Jeanne is fulfilled in her work because she knows that she is leaving an everlasting life changing impact on the people she meets. Jeanne attended CUNY York where she received a B.A in English Literature. Jeanne is fluent in Haitian Creole.
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Aviva Schaffer
Senior Staff Attorney – Immigration Program Aviva Schaffer is a Senior Staff Attorney with Catholic Migration Services. She received her B.A. from the University of Rochester and J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law. During her undergraduate years, she volunteered with the Legal Aid Society of Rochester, where she discovered her passion for serving immigrant clients. In law school, she was an intern at the Arlington Immigration Court, CAIR Coalition, and UNHCR. Aviva is proficient in Spanish and Hebrew.
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Michael Shannon
Senior Staff Attorney – Immigration Program Michael Shannon is a Senior Staff Attorney in the Removal Defense Project. Before joining Catholic Migration Services, Michael worked at the Northern Manhattan Coalition for Immigrant Rights, the Bronx Defenders, and Sanctuary for Families, where he was an Immigrant Justice Corps fellow.
Michael received his J.D. from Boston College Law School, where he represented immigrants in removal proceedings in his school’s Immigration and Asylum Clinic and Federal Appeals Clinic. He spent his summers at human rights organizations in Colombia and Bolivia, and completed a semester-long externship program at a refugee rights organization in Ecuador.
Before law school, Michael was a management consultant in Texas, an English teacher in Ecuador, a Peace Corps volunteer in Senegal, and an advocate for survivors of human rights abuses in Bolivia and Mexico. Michael is a graduate of Bowdoin College. He speaks Spanish and French.
Michael is admitted to practice law in New York.
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Michelle Vázquez
Naturalization Counselor – Immigration Program Michelle is a Naturalization Counselor at Catholic Migration Services where she assists clients in the process of applying for Naturalization. Prior to becoming a Naturalization Counselor, Michelle interned with the Workers’ Rights Team and served as the administrative assistant for a little over two years. In 2017, she graduated from St. Francis College with a B.S. in Criminal Justice and a minor in English and Forensic Science. Her experience with the criminal justice system while at St. Francis College and exposure as an intern and administrative assistant at Catholic Migration Services, opened her eyes to the injustice that exists, especially within the immigrant community. Michelle’s experiences, especially as the daughter of Mexican immigrants, made her want to be a part of an organization that prides itself in helping and being an ally of the immigrant community. Michelle is fluent in Spanish.
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Caitlin Wright
Senior Immigration Counselor, DOJ Accredited Representative – Immigration Program Caitlin Wright is a Senior Immigration Counselor and DOJ Accredited Representative. She assists and represents clients in matters of consular processing, adjustments of status, VAWA, U Visas, DACA, and TPS. Caitlin started with Catholic Migration Services as a Jesuit Volunteer on the Naturalization team. She graduated in 2017 from Creighton University with a B.A. in English and Spanish and a minor in Legal Studies. In her time at Creighton, Caitlin fostered a passion for social justice pursuits, most notably through her leadership with the Schlegel Center for Service and Justice, a study abroad program in Villa El Salvador, Peru, and an internship with Omaha Together One Community. Caitlin is thrilled to work for an organization dedicated to the livelihood of migrants. Caitlin is proficient in Spanish.
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