Immigration Clinic Staff | William S. Boyd School of Law

Immigration Clinic Staff

Michael Kagan, Director Prof. Kagan is a noted scholar of international refugee law and immigrant rights in the United States. Before coming to Boyd in 2011, Prof. Michael Kagan spent 10 years building legal aid programs for refugees throughout the Middle East and Asia. In addition to directing the UNLV Immigration Clinic, he has consulted on hundreds of criminal cases involving non-citizens with the Clark County Public Defender. Visit Prof. Kagan's faculty page for more about his scholarship and teaching.

Alissa Cooley Yonesawa, Managing Attorney Alissa Cooley Yonesawa is the UNLV Immigration Clinic’s managing attorney and leads our off-campus Community Advocacy Office. A native Nevadan, she completed her undergraduate degree at UNLV and graduated cum laude from Boyd in 2014. After law school, she became one of the first two justice AmeriCorps (jAC) fellows at the Thomas & Mack Legal Clinic, effectively jump-starting the growth of the Immigration Clinic as a legal aid provider. Over two years as a jAC fellow, she represented over one hundred children, ages two to sixteen, who entered the U.S. without a parent or guardian, in their immigration court proceedings. This work later evolved into the Edward M. Bernstein & Associates Children’s Rights Program (2017-2021) and then the Community Advocacy Office (2022-). Ms. Cooley Yonesawa practiced immigration and criminal law in private practice from 2016 to 2021 and co-taught UNLV’s Policing and Protest Clinic in 2021, before returning to Boyd full-time to lead the Community Advocacy Office. She is a member of the Lt. Governor’s Keep Nevada Working Task Force since 2021. Ms. Cooley Yonesawa was named Nevada's Top Lawyers for 2022 by Vegas Inc.

Melissa Corral, Deputy Managing Attorney Melissa Corral joined the Community Advocacy Office as Staff Attorney in June 2022. Prior to coming to the CAO, she worked at Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada for four years, where she developed expertise in immigration and family law. She was a law clerk to the Honorable Linda Marquis in the Family Division of the Clark County Eighth Judicial District Court and a student attorney at the UNLV Immigration Clinic. Raised in Durango, Mexico, and a native Spanish speaker, she earned her undergraduate and law degrees from UNLV. She currently is President of the William S. Boyd School of Law Alumni Chapter, V.P. of Outreach of the Nevada Latino Bar Association, and Treasurer of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) in Nevada. Ms. Corral was named among the 2022 Top Rank Attorneys by the Nevada Business Magazine.

Aubrey Maples, University Legal Services Staff Attorney Before entering the legal profession, Aubrey Maples spent 15 years as an educator. Her background in teaching first focused on supporting first-generation and non-traditional students as they navigated higher education at both community college and university. She has worked in community-based education and victim advocacy in Appalachia. She graduated summa cum laude from the Duncan School of Law at Lincoln Memorial University in Tennessee with recognition for her commitment to service to the community and the school. She collaboratively developed a series of virtual lunch and learn opportunities that discussed the intersection of equity, justice, diversity and the legal profession. Her goal in life is to work to make things more fair.

Martha Arellano, Office Manager (Community Advocacy Office) Martha Arellano is originally from Los Angeles, California, where she grew up speaking English and Spanish. Ms. Arellano's love of language led her to expand on her formal English education to also study Spanish and French. She is a twenty-seven year resident of Las Vegas, Nevada and former UNLV engineering student, where she maintained a 4.0 GPA. In 2014, Ms. Arellano began working at the Thomas & Mack Legal Clinic and was instrumental in the implementation of the AmeriCorps program for Unaccompanied Immigrant Children, the predecessor of the Edward M. Bernstein and Associates Children's Rights Program, and now the Community Advocacy Office. She has served as an interpreter, translator, administrative assistant, and legal secretary. She has been described as the program's "heart and soul,” and was promoted as the Community Advocacy Office’s first Office Manager in 2022.

David G. Blitzer, IJC Katzmann Fellow David G. Blitzer joined the Community Advocacy Office as an Immigrant Justice Corps Justice Fellow in September 2022. Originally from New Jersey, he graduated with undergraduate degrees in English and Russian from Williams College in 2010. For eight years, he worked as a middle and high school English teacher in Boston, Massachusetts, working predominantly with the children of immigrants from Haiti and the Dominican Republic. He later attended New York University School of Law, where he was a Notes Editor for the New York University Law Review and graduated magna cum laude in May 2022. He speaks Spanish proficiently and is particularly interested in the intersection of criminal law and immigration law.

Chapman Noam, IJC Katzmann Fellow Chapman is an Immigrant Justice Corps Fellow with the UNLV Immigration Clinic in the Clinic's Community Advocacy Office. He serves adult noncitizens detained by U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement and non-detained, unaccompanied children facing removal. Chapman handles various administrative and litigation matters for the Clinic's clients in seeking lawful immigration status or release from custody, such as appearing before the Las Vegas Immigration Court, the Board of Immigration Appeals, and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals or submitting affirmative applications to U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services. Before practicing law, Chapman worked with unaccompanied minors as a paralegal with the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law in Los Angeles, CA. During law school, he continued to serve the immigrant community as an intern with the East Bay Community Law Center’s Immigration Unit and then as a student attorney with the UNLV Immigration Clinic. Before returning to the Clinic as a Fellow, Chapman served as a judicial law clerk with the Nevada Supreme Court. He is a member of the Nevada and California bars.

Cristian G. Gonzalez Perez, IJC Unaccompanied Child Fellow Cristian G. Gonzalez Perez is an Immigrant Justice Corps Fellow, representing unaccompanied children in removal proceedings. Born and raised in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, Cristian came to the United States when he was eight years old. A Dreamer, Cristian understands the difficulties undocumented immigrants face in the United States. Cristian became a DAC Attorney in 2022 after passing the Nevada Bar. Prior to becoming an IJC fellow, Cristian was a law clerk to the Honorable Linda Marquis in the Family Division of the Clark County Eighth Judicial District Court. In law school, Cristian was a student attorney at the UNLV Immigration Clinic and the William S. School of Law. During his time there, Cristian volunteered and helped over 100 fellow DACA recipients renew their applications. As an immigration clinic student, Cristian successfully represented a detainee in an asylum hearing under the guidance of IJC fellow Paloma Guerrero. Cristian hopes to continue the fight for immigrant's rights and help represent unaccompanied children to remain in the US.

Priscila Venzor, IJC Unaccompanied Child Fellow Priscila Venzor is an Immigrant Justice Corps Fellow with the UNLV Immigration Clinic, representing unaccompanied children in removal proceedings. Priscila graduated from Boyd with dual-degrees in law and social work. Her family immigrated to the United States from Chihuahua, Mexico. The combination of her personal and professional experiences has strengthened her passion for breaking down barriers in access to justice. She has worked with immigrant communities both as a legal advocate and as a social service provider. Through her leadership as president of Boyd's Immigrant Rights Coalition during her time in law school, she facilitated hundreds of hours of community-service for immigrant communities in the Las Vegas valley. She also spearheaded the effort to change policies to ensure that legal aid nonprofits across the state of Nevada are guaranteed interpreters for their pro bono cases.