case studies

We defend clients from deportation and fight for their legal documentation in the United States.  Most cases involve human rights and social justice issues.  Our clients share their extraordinary stories and we seek to make their voices heard through competent legal representation.  Below are a few stories.  Each person's name has been changed to protect their confidentiality.

 

'JULIA'

'SANTIAGO'

'BIanca'

'Julia' is a teenager who fled her native country after she was threatened with death and sexually assaulted near her school. Julia feared for her life and came to the U.S. alone, where she was apprehended by Customs and Border Patrol and placed in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement. She was released to her mother in the Bay Area but sadly, Julia was later placed into foster care.  Despite these obstacles, and Ms. Gutierrez’s help, Julia won her right to stay here by showing she qualifies as a refugee. Here, she finally feels safe.

'Santiago' is a family man and father to two young U.S. citizen children.  In 1998, he came to the U.S. to better provide for his family in southern Mexico.  Since then, he has been a longtime California resident and a tax-paying member of his community.  Santiago made this country his home and has worked for years in the fertile agricultural fields near Watsonville, providing Californians with delicious and affordable produce, often working under harsh and backbreaking conditions.  Ms. Gutierrez represented Santiago before the Board of Immigration Appeals, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, fighting for his ability to remain with his wife and two young children.

'Bianca' fled her home country with her two children after suffering for years from brutal violence at the hands of her husband. She sought protection from police in her native country but, in part because the police do not speak her indigenous language, officers refused to even write a police report.  Aware that her husband enjoyed total impunity, Bianca feared that her husband would kill her, so she made the decision to take her two young children and flee to the U.S.  Ms. Gutierrez represented Bianca and her two kids before the Immigration Court and convinced the judge that they are refugees.