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CAITLIN WILLIAMS, Program Director
Esperanza Immigrant Rights Project
Caitlin came to Esperanza in May 2011 from the U.S. Department of Justice, Executive Office for Immigration Review, where she served as the Attorney Advisor to the Immigration Court located on the Mira Loma Detention Facility in Lancaster, CA. Her post required her to advise the Court on legal issues regarding the individuals who were being held in DHS custody pending their immigration proceedings. Prior to her position with EOIR, Caitlin was awarded an Equal Justice Works Fellowship to work for two years with Community Refugee and Immigration Services in Columbus, Ohio where she not only provided direct representation to low-income immigrant communities, but she did community outreach and education and helped create and manage a state-wide Immigration Task Force that brought together stake-holders from across the state of Ohio to network and strategize on issues of import to immigrant communities. Caitlin was awarded her fellowship, in part, because of work she did in Cairo, Egypt where she lived and volunteered for Africa Middle East and Refugee Assistance (AMERA) while studying abroad at the American University in Cairo. At AMERA, Caitlin represented migrants who had fled to Egypt from other parts of Africa in front of the UNHCR who were seeking to be recognized as refugees under international law. Caitlin is a 2007 graduate of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. where she graduated with a J.D., Masters in Arab Studies and Certificate in Refugee and Humanitarian Emergencies. Caitlin was active in several groups in the D.C. area that advocated on behalf of immigrant communities, including the Capital Area Immigrant Rights (CAIR) Network where she was first introduced to immigrants in civil detention while traveling to different detention facilities and advising detainees of their civil and due process rights. She is fluent in Italian, proficient in Arabic and Dutch, and enjoying her studies in Spanish. She and her husband own Weltenbuerger Store LA, a vintage and avant-garde clothing store located in the Los Feliz district of Los Angeles.
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SUSANNE GRIFFIN, Immigration Attorney/Pro Bono Coordinator
Mira Loma Program, Criminal Detention Program, Pro Bono Program
Sue Griffin received her undergraduate degree, a B.A. in French, from UCLA, and her J.D. from Southwestern University School of Law. Sue has run a private practice in immigration law since 1986 and has been an Esperanza detention attorney since 2006, working in the Legal Orientation Program (LOP) at Mira Loma Detention Center in Lancaster, CA. Sue became a lawyer because she wanted to make a difference in the world. Because Sue’s parents were refugees/immigrants on three continents and because Sue herself immigrated to the U.S. from Australia, she identifies with immigrants and the immigrant experience. After practicing for about 5 years in other areas of law, she returned to immigration and has never left.
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MARTIN GAUTO, Lead Immigration Attorney
Youth Program, Direct Representation Program, Pro Bono Program
Martin Gauto joined Esperanza in January 2007 when it was a field office of Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC). Martin worked to expand CLINIC’s pro bono attorney network and strengthen its relationship with law firms, bar associations and other organizations in the Los Angeles area. With Esperanza, Martin supervises all the attorneys and staff in the Youth Program, and represents unaccompanied minors in immigration removal proceedings. He also continues to recruit, train and provide technical assistance to pro bono attorneys working with unaccompanied minors in immigration removal proceedings. He has provided pro bono legal services to hundreds of unaccompanied minors. Martin is a May 2006 graduate of the University of Southern California Gould School of Law (LA), where he represented asylum seekers in the Immigration Clinic.
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SUSAN ALVA, Supervising Immigration Attorney
LOP for Custodians
Susan Alva coordinates Esperanza’s Legal Orientation Program for Custodians of children in removal proceedings (LOPC), within Esperanza's Youth Program. Susan is also the founder and Coordinator of the Migration Policy and Resource Center at Occidental College’s Urban and Environmental Policy Institute in Los Angeles which works with local immigrant organizations on migration policy issues and international migrants rights advocacy. Previously, Susan was the Director of the Immigration and Citizenship Project of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA). She has also worked as the Directing Attorney of Public Counsel’s Legalization Appeals Project, and as the Supervising Attorney for the L.A. Center for Law and Justice. While attending law school, she worked full time in the Immigration Unit of San Diego’s Legal Aid Society. In the mid-1970’s, Susan worked with the United Farm Workers Union at the height of their largest organizing and union election drive. From 1974-76, she worked for the California Rural Legal Assistance in the San Joaquin Valley.
In addition to representing hundreds of immigrants and workers in immigration, deportation defense, and labor issues, Susan worked on getting the short-handled hoe declared illegal in California’s agricultural fields, the deportation defense of the eight Palestinians and one Kenyan in L.A., the Riverside Sheriff’s televised beatings case, and the El Monte Thai garment workers case. She is on the Boards of the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild and the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. Born in New York City, Susan is the daughter of Mexican and Dominican immigrant parents.
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LINDSAY TOCZYLOWSKI, Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) Fellow
Kids in Need of Defense, Youth Program
Lindsay came to Esperanza in November 2011 as the Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) Fellow. She provides representation and advocacy on behalf unaccompanied children in deportation proceedings. Lindsay came to Esperanza from the Children’s Law Center of Los Angeles where she represented foster children in Juvenile Court and fought to ensure their legal rights were protected. Lindsay was previously the Overseas Operations Director at Asylum Access, a non-governmental organization that makes refugee rights a reality in the global south. Lindsay was primarily responsible for the management of the overseas legal aid operations, including coordination of Asylum Access’s comprehensive training program in international refugee law and the opening of their office in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Further, in 2008, as a recipient of the USC Irmas Fellowship, Lindsay provided direct legal services, community legal education and engaged in policy advocacy on behalf of refugees in Asylum Access’s Ecuador office.
Lindsay is a 2003 graduate of San Diego State University and a 2008 graduate of the University of Southern California Law School. During law school Lindsay participated as a student attorney in USC Law’s Immigration Clinic, externed at Centro de Mujeres Ixchen in Masaya, Nicaragua and worked at USAID in Managua, Nicaragua where she collaborated with an international team of attorneys on a project aimed at increasing access to justice for traditionally marginalized populations, particularly women, children, indigenous persons and the poor. Lindsay is an active member of Amnesty International and a member of the USC Public Interest Law Foundation Advisory Board.
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ERIKA D. PINHEIRO, Immigration Attorney, Georgetown University Law Fellow
Mira Loma Program, Youth Program, Direct Representation Program
Erika is the current Georgetown University Law Fellow at Esperanza. Erika is a 2010 graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, where she earned her JD, and Georgetown Public Policy Institute, where she earned a Master of Public Policy. During law school, Erika participated in human rights fact finding missions to Guatemala and Haiti, where she investigated country conditions for those deported from or barred from immigrating to the United States. Her Masters thesis, a quantitative analysis of the Department of Homeland Security’s 287(g) program, explored the relationship between local enforcement of federal immigration laws and crime reduction. She spent a summer working at the International Organization for Migration in Geneva, Switzerland. Erika also advocated on behalf of juveniles through her work at Georgetown’s Center for Juvenile Justice Reform and as a fellow at Conectas Human Rights in Sao Paulo, Brazil. While at Georgetown, Erika also completed the Certificate Program for Refugee and Humanitarian Emergencies. Erika is also a 2001 graduate of Wellesley College.
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JAIME CARTAGENA, Immigration Attorney
Youth Program, Direct Representation Program
Jaime Cartagena has been practicing immigration law in the non-profit sector since graduating from Loyola Law School in 2007. As a Loyola Law School Public Interest Fellow, he developed a VAWA/U Visa project for those living with HIV at HIV & AIDS Legal Services Alliance (HALSA). He has since joined Esperanza Immigrant Rights Project as an attorney for the Youth Program and continues to focus upon providing immigration services to vulnerable, abused immigrant populations. Since joining Esperanza, he has represented immigrant children in immigration court and numerous state courts.
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SHAILA RAHMAN, Immigration Attorney
LOP for Custodians Program, Direct Representation Program
Shaila Rahman received her J.D. from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Law and her B.A. from Loyola University Chicago, where she majored in Political Science. During her time at UCLA, Shaila co-chaired the Detention and Trafficking Center Clinic which provides legal services and presentations to immigrants in detention. As the clinic co-chair, Shaila coordinated and supervised law students to volunteer at the Mira Loma Detention Center in Lancaster, CA. Shaila was also selected to participate in the inaugural year of the UCLA International Justice Clinic, for which she traveled to Sarajevo to help work on war crimes prosecutions. Shaila also externed at the Headquarter Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva, Switzerland where she helped formulate, negotiate, and draft UNHCR's position on various refugee protection issues. After her time in Geneva, Shaila worked in Rome, Italy at the International Development Law Organization (IDLO) where she did research and fieldwork to start a microfinance pilot project for female immigrants in Rome. Shaila joined Esperanza in June of 2010 and works in the Legal Orientation Program for Custodians (LOPC) and our Direct Representation Program.
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Tania Vargas, Law Clerk
Mira Loma Program
Tania K. Vargas joined Esperanza in August of 2011. She is a law clerk in the Legal Orientation Program (LOP) at the Mira Loma Detention Center in Lancaster, California where she provides individuals in detention with “Know Your Rights” presentations as well as assisting individuals represent themselves pro se. During law school she interned at Public Counsel Law Center where she assisted survivors of domestic violence, human trafficking and other serious crimes in obtaining legal status in the United States. She also interned at the National Immigration Law Center (NILC) where she focused on promoting the rights of low income immigrants through litigation, technical assistance and administrative advocacy as well as analyzing the ways in which federal and state anti-immigrant legislation is developing. Tania was a board member of Loyola Law School’s newly formed Immigration Law Society and participated in the Immigrant Justice Practicum where she studied the intersection between immigration enforcement and the constitutional right of noncitizens. Tania earned her Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree in Political Science from the University of California Los Angeles and obtained her Juris Doctor (J.D.) from Loyola Law School, Los Angeles. Tania is an immigrant from Bolivia and native Spanish speaker. She has been actively involved with the Southern California Bolivian community as a Bolivian folklore dancer since the age of twelve.
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JOSE LUIS QUINTERO, Accredited Representative of the BIA (Board Immigration Appeal)
Youth Program
Jose Luis has worked for the Immigration and Refugee Department of Catholic Charities since August 1986 as an Immigration Counselor, serving clients in immigration matters by completing a range of immigration applications, including family visa petition applications, applications to renew lawful permanent residency cards (‘green cards’) and applications for citizenship. Jose Luis also supervised the Immigration and Refugee Department’s citizenship outreach program for the last 3 years. He first became accredited by the Board of Immigration Appeals in 1998, and became accredited for the second time on April 27, 2009. He joined the Esperanza Immigrant Rights Project in June 2009, working for the youth program, regularly traveling to the youth detention center to screen detained children for relief from removal (a way to stay lawfully in the United States).
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CLAUDIA L. LEON RIVEROS, Paralegal/Pro Bono Coordinator
Mira Loma Program, Pro Bono Program
As an immigrant from Colombia and native Spanish speaker, Claudia is particularly sensitive to and understanding of the challenges facing other immigrants in the United States. She has long prayed for work where she could help, love, and listen to people and believes she is now working in that ideal place. Claudia received her Bachelor’s Degree in Law at Universidad de la Sabana in 1999 and practiced as an attorney for 10 years in Colombia before coming to the U.S. Most recently, she worked in the Ministry of Communications of Colombia, first in the General Secretary’s Office and then in the Office of the Vice Minister of Communications. In 2005, Claudia completed the XIII Program of Formation in Andean Integration—Internships Andean Community in Lima, Peru. Claudia obtained her Paralegal Certification from the University of California at Irvine in 2008.
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MICKEY DONOVAN-KALOUST, Paralegal
Youth Program, LOP for Custodians Program
Mickey graduated from Goucher College in Maryland with two B.A.’s, in Spanish and International Relations. She also minored in Latin American studies. Before and during college, Mickey studied, worked, and did research abroad in Chile, Ghana, Argentina, Uruguay, Ecuador and Brazil. Upon graduation, Mickey joined the 2006 corps of Teach for America, which brought her to Los Angeles. She taught Spanish, English and College Prep for three years at Environmental Charter High School in Lawndale, where she served as head of the Ninth Grade faculty. In 2009, Mickey transitioned to the Public Interest Law Program at UCLA Law School. Currently on a leave of absence, Mickey has worked as Intake Specialist at Kids in Need of Defense, a Los Angeles non-profit that provides pro bono representation to children in deportation proceedings, and in September 2011, she joined the Esperanza family as a paralegal focusing on Esperanza's youth programs.
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Kathryn Griffith, Paralegal
Mira Loma Program
Kathryn began working at Esperanza in October 2011 after graduating from Occidental College in May. At Occidental she studied Spanish and Urban & Environmental Policy. After witnessing the reaction to Arizona’s SB1070 while studying and living abroad in Chile, she decided to write her senior thesis on the current political climate and immigrant rights. Through interviews in English and Spanish, Kathryn worked to understand the legal and political context as well as the consequences of 287(g) and Secure Communities programs. She focused on the criminalizing and marginalizing effects of current State and federal immigration policy. Previously Kathryn worked as a community organizer and legal clinic volunteer at the Los Angeles Community Action Network (LA CAN). At LA CAN she advocated for the civil and human rights of low-income Skid Row tenants as well as homeless men and women. Kathryn is excited to be a part of the Mira Loma LOP staff.
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