Jennifer manages the Immigration Defense Unit at the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office. She has dedicated her career to representing non-citizens caught at the intersection of the criminal and legal systems for over twenty years. She joined our unit in 2017, where she represents non-citizens in removal proceedings before EOIR, BIA, the Ninth Circuit, and federal district court. She was honored to serve among co-counsel in the case Zepeda-Rivas v. Jennings, a 2020 pandemic lawsuit which has led to significant depopulation of two ICE detention centers. In 2021, she founded the national Public Defenders Coalition for Immigrant Justice, which unites public defenders’ offices across the country to harness the collective power and perception of public defenders and to center our clients and their families to illustrate the injustices noncitizens face in both the criminal and immigration legal systems. She has trained public defenders and immigration defense attorneys across the country on topics including Fearless Advocacy for Criminal Defense Lawyers, Advancing Universal Representation, and Defending Immigration Removal Proceedings.
Jennifer was previously the Managing Director of the Immigration Practice at The Bronx Defenders, where she practiced immigration law for ten years and managed a team of attorneys, advocates, and social workers who represented noncitizens in every available forum. Beginning in 2013, she oversaw the implementation of the first-ever universal representation project for detained noncitizens facing removal proceedings, the New York Immigrant Family Unity Project (NYIFUP). She also worked on advocacy campaigns including passing local prohibitions against NYC jails honoring ICE detainers and increasing awareness of immigration consequences of criminal and family court involvement.