The UC Immigrant Legal Services Center is comprised of a passionate team of legal professionals who are dedicated to supporting UC students and their families. Our goal is to remove barriers by providing immigration legal services so UC students can achieve their full potential in their educational pursuits.
Based at the UC Davis School of Law, the UCIMM serves students through its Northern California and Southern California hubs. Our UCLA, UC Davis, UC Riverside, UC Irvine, and UC San Diego attorneys are located on their respective campuses.
Meet Our Team
María Blanco
Executive Director
Phone: 530-219-5091
E-mail: mablanco@ucdavis.edu
María Blanco is Executive Director of the UC Immigrant Legal Services Center, which provides immigration-related legal services for undocumented students at UC Merced, UC San Francisco, UC Santa Cruz, UC Santa Barbara, UC San Diego, and UC Riverside. A graduate of UC Berkeley School of Law, Blanco has more than 20 years’ experience as a litigator and advocate for immigrant rights, women’s rights, and social justice.
Vivek Mittal
Managing Attorney
Phone: 530-219-7256
E-mail: vivek.ucimm@law.ucdavis.edu
Vivek Mittal is a Managing Attorney at the UC Immigrant Legal Services Center. A graduate of the UCLA School of Law, Vivek has been an Adjunct Professor at the Immigrant Rights Clinic at the UC Irvine School of Law, and served as a law clerk to the Honorable Consuelo B. Marshall, Senior District Court Judge in the Central District of California in Los Angeles, California. Prior to this, he worked as an immigration practitioner at a private immigration firm in Los Angeles. In 2009, Vivek was selected to be an Equal Justice Works Fellow at the National Immigration Law Center, where he litigated high-impact cases regarding anti-immigration laws across the country, most notably against Arizona’s SB 1070 and Alabama’s HB 56. For this work, he was honored by the Coalition for Human Immigrant Rights Los Angeles (CHIRLA). Vivek enjoys creative writing, tennis, running and spending time with his daughter and partner. He is highly proficient in spoken Hindi.
Rachel Ray
Managing Attorney
Phone: (530) 761-8026
E-mail: rachel.ucimm@law.ucdavis.edu
Rachel Ray is a Managing Attorney at the UC Immigrant Legal Services Center. She is a graduate of UC Davis School of Law (J.D., Public Service Law Program Scholar) and Whitman College (B.A., Art History and Visual Culture Studies). During college, she studied at the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo in Mendoza, Argentina. Her immigration legal experience includes removal defense, family and humanitarian based immigration, and business immigration work at private firms including Law Offices of Daniel Shanfield – Immigration Defense, PC and Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy, LLP and nonprofit organizations. Prior to joining the UC Center in 2015, Rachel served as the as the lead attorney for the UC Davis Immigration Law Clinic’s Unaccompanied Minors Project, representing unaccompanied minors in removal proceedings. After law school, Rachel also worked as a Civil Rights Impact Litigation Attorney Fellow with the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley, and as a community organizer and documentarian for the ACLU of Northern California on a special immigrants’ rights project in Alabama. Rachel has served on multiple boards, including the AILA Santa Clara Valley Chapter, Somos Mayfair, and the Santa Clara Valley and Yolo County Chapters of the ACLU. She currently serves as Volunteer Fundraiser for the BlyueRose Dance Project. In her free time, Rachel enjoys hiking, yoga, dancing, crafting, cooking, and spending time with her life partner, Errol, and their rescue dogs. She is highly proficient in both spoken and written Spanish.
Habiba Simjee
Staff Attorney
Phone: 424-443-9653
E-mail: Habiba.ucimm@law.ucdavis.edu
Habiba Simjee is a Staff Attorney with the UC Immigrant Legal Services Center and serves UCLA through the Bruin Resource Center. She is a graduate of UC Berkeley School of Law (J.D.) and UC San Diego (B.A., International Studies – Economics and History). During college, she studied abroad at the American University in Cairo, Egypt. Her experience includes working with refugees, asylum-seekers, unaccompanied children, and youth in the juvenile justice system. Habiba became involved with undocumented student advocacy during law school through Berkeley Law?s International Human Rights Law Clinic DREAMers at Cal project. Most recently, she served as the Undocumented Student Services Coordinator at UC Santa Barbara developing the program, services, and resources for undocumented and mixed-status students and allies at UC Santa Barbara. In her free time, Habiba enjoys cooking, baking, boxing, hiking, and being outdoors. She has language capabilities in Spanish, Gujurati, Urdu, Hindi, and Arabic.
Anna Manuel
Staff Attorney and Strategic Initiatives Coordinator
Phone: 530-219-0832
E-mail: anna.ucimm@law.ucdavis.edu
Anna Manuel is a Staff Attorney with the UC Immigrant Legal Services Center and serves UC Santa Barbara. She is a graduate of University of San Francisco School of Law (J.D., certificate in International and Comparative Law) and San Francisco State University (B.A., Anthropology). During law school, she participated in the Frank C. Newman International Human Rights Clinic and the USF Immigration and Deportation Defense Clinic. After graduating law school, she worked with a private immigration law firm in the Fruitvale District of Oakland, California. Her legal experience has primarily included removal defense and asylum for women and children. Anna is also an organizer and activist, and currently works as volunteer Co-Director of Policy for Dreamer Fund, which assists Dreamers and undocumented students financially to pursue and complete law school. In her free time, Anna enjoys cooking, camping, traveling, and spending time with friends, family, and the weirdo cat.
Andres Lemons
Staff Attorney
UC San Diego
Phone: 530-219-8856
E-mail: andres.ucimm@law.ucdavis.edu
Andrés Lemons is a Staff Attorney with the UC Immigrant Legal Services Center and serves UCSD through the Undocumented Student Services Center. Andrés obtained both his B.A. in Philosophy and his law degree, with a focus on immigration law, at the University of Arizona. He worked for nine years in New York City at CUNY Citizenship Now!, where he provided free immigration legal services including naturalization assistance, family-based adjustment of status, and consular processing. More recently, Andrés had a private immigration-law practice focusing on family-based immigration law as well as artist visas. He is admitted to practice law in California, New York, and Arizona, and is fluent in Spanish. Andrés enjoys playing flamenco guitar and travelling.
Lucero Chavez Basilio
Staff Attorney
UC Irvine
Phone: 530-400-2062
E-mail: lucero.ucimm@law.ucdavis.edu
Lucero Chávez Basilio is a Staff Attorney with the UC Immigrant Legal Services Center and serves UC Irvine. Prior to joining the Center Lucero was a senior staff attorney at Public Counsel in the Immigrant Rights Project. Lucero spent over five years representing unaccompanied children in immigration, asylum, family, delinquency, dependency, and probate proceedings. Prior to joining Public Counsel, Lucero was an Immigrants Rights attorney at the ACLU of Southern California where she focused on impact litigation around immigration enforcement. Lucero received her J.D. from UC Berkeley Law School in 2010 and obtained a B.A. in American Literature & Culture and Chicana/o Studies from UCLA in 2007. She is the former President of the UC Student Association, worked on briefing for the Inter American Court with the Berkeley Law International Human Rights Clinic, and is a longtime volunteer with the YMCA Model Legislature and Court Youth and Government program. Lucero is also a Rockwood Leadership Institute Fellow with the Fellowship for a New California and participated in the Shriver Racial Justice Institute. Lucero also teaches administrative law at Western State College of law. She is a proud native of Los Angeles and from a working-class immigrant family.
Alfonso Maldonado-Silva
Staff Attorney
Phone: 530-574-9134
E-mail: alfonso.ucimm@law.ucdavis.edu
Alfonso Maldonado-Silva is a Staff Attorney with the UC Immigrant Legal Services Center and serves UC Riverside. At the age of five, Alfonso and his family migrated from Michoacan, Mexico to the United States. He and his family settled in California’s Central Valley, where he grew up undocumented. When it was time to apply for college, Alfonso learned that he did not qualify for financial aid because of his legal status. Nonetheless, his determination got him to UC Riverside, where he graduated with a major in Philosophy Law and Society. He then went on to attend Western State College of Law with the sole intention of becoming an immigration attorney. During law school, Alfonso became a two-time California Bar Foundation Fellow and successfully argued before the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in 2017. He now proudly returns to his alma mater and helps represent a body of students he once formed part of. Alfonso enjoys spending time outdoors, whether it be in the form of gardening or hiking a local trail.
Damian Caravez
Legal Fellow
Phone: 530-219-8468
E-mail: damian.ucimm@law.ucdavis.edu
Damian is a recent UC Davis School of Law graduate and also received his Bachelor degree in Political Science and History at UC Davis. During law school, Damian interned at Catholic Charities of the East Bay and the UC Immigrant Legal Services Center and assisted the teams in providing immigration services for the community. Damian was born and raised in Solano County and looks forward to serving the students and families of UC Davis. In his spare time, Damian enjoys running, dancing, and spending time with his family.
Ian Dougherty
Legal Fellow
UC Santa Cruz
Phone: 530-574-9414
E-mail: ian.ucimm@law.ucdavis.edu
Ian Dougherty is a Legal Fellow with the UC Immigrant Legal Services Center and serves UC Santa Cruz. Ian is a graduate of UC Davis School of Law. Ian graduated with an Immigration Law certificate and as part of the King Hall Public Service Program. During law school, Ian worked on a large variety of immigration cases with the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation in Sacramento and on LGBTQ asylum cases with Oasis Legal Services in the Bay Area. He also externed for the Yolo County Public Defender’s office, and acted as Co-Chair for the Lambda Law Students Association. Before law school, Ian worked with the United Farm Workers union and with the UFW Foundation for three years, helping the UFW advocate for immigration reform and state policy and the UFW Foundation expand its immigration legal services throughout California. In his free time, Ian likes to spend time with his family, go hiking, and create art.
Karina Rocha
Paralegal Office Manager
Phone: 530-304-6043
E-mail: krocha@ucdavis.edu
Karina Rocha is the Paralegal Office Manager for the UC Immigrant Legal Services Center. She graduated from UC Davis with a bachelor’s degree in Sociology and a minor in Chicana/o studies. She obtained her Paralegal Certificate from UCLA in 2013. Prior to her work with the UC Center, she assisted victims of crime by helping provide immigration services through the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) and Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act (VTVPA). Karina has experience assisting in the preparation of pleadings, discovery, motions, legal research and trial preparation for civil litigation. Karina spends a lot of her free time singing and playing guitar for her spirited hound pup, Phoebe. Karina is fluent is both spoken and written Spanish.
Lorena Rosas
DACA Program Associate
Phone: 530-219-5716
E-mail: lorena.ucimm@law.ucdavis.edu
Lorena Rosas is the DACA Program Associate at the UC Immigrant Legal Services Center. She graduated from California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB) where she received a bachelor’s degree in Sociology. During college, she took part of the first group of DACAmented students to study abroad in Mexico, which allowed her to reconnect with her roots. Her personal experience has shaped her into an advocate for immigrant rights and supporting undocumented students pursuing higher education. Prior to joining the team, Lorena worked at a private law firm where she assisted over 200 applicants with their DACA initial and renewal applications. She also took part of the Immigrants Rising Catalyst Fund as the Academic Coordinator for the Undocumented Student Success Center (USSC) at CSUSB. During her role at USSC, Lorena worked closely with undocumented students to increase the retention and graduation rates. Lorena is also a founding and board member of the first undocumented alumni chapter in the CSU system. Her mission is to continue active participation in the immigrant rights movement, encouraging support and communicating available resources to her community. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with friends and family. Lorena is fluent in both spoken and written Spanish.
Emily Clarkson
Legal Assistant
Phone: 530-219-0186
E-mail: emily.ucimm@law.ucdavis.edu
Emily Clarkson is a Legal Assistant for the UC Immigrant Legal Services Center. She is a recent graduate from UC Davis with bachelor’s degrees in International Relations and Spanish. During her undergraduate studies, she attended the Universidad de Chile in Santiago, where she also interned at an immigration legal services non-profit. Emily enjoys writing, traveling, learning languages, and swimming in her free time. She is proficient in Spanish and has basic speaking abilities in Japanese.
School of Law Faculty
The excellence of the UC Immigrant Legal Services Center is reinforced by the Law School’s outstanding faculty, including these nationally renowned experts on immigration law and policy.
Kevin R. Johnson
Kevin R. Johnson is Dean, Mabie-Apallas Professor of Public Interest Law, and Professor of Chicana/o Studies at UC Davis School of Law. A nationally renowned expert on immigration law, his areas of specialty also include civil procedure, complex litigation, Latinos and Latinas and the law, and Critical Race Theory. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School.
Leticia Saucedo
Leticia Saucedo is a Professor of Law and Director of Clinical Legal Education at UC Davis School of Law. An expert in employment, labor, and immigration law, she directs the Law School’s clinics, which provide legal services without charge to indigent persons, particularly client groups that have traditionally lacked significant legal representation, such as noncitizens and victims of domestic violence.