Presenters
Carolina Castaneda - Staff Attorney & Lead Fellowship Trainer, Immigrant Legal Resource Center
Carolina Castaneda joined the ILRC in February of 2023. After ten years in private practice, seven of those running her own immigration firm in Merced, California, Carolina brings extensive practical experience to the ILRC. She has represented detained and non-detained individuals in removal proceedings before the Executive Office for Immigration Review. She also has ample experience filing and representing clients before USCIS with cases spanning from the areas of DACA, advance parole, naturalization, SIJS, U visas, family-based adjustment of status, and consular processing. Carolina has also represented clients before the Board of Immigration Appeals and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Prior to joining the ILRC, Carolina worked at the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), where she represented clients in removal proceedings and provided trainings to attorneys and staff. As an immigrant and Central Vally resident, Carolina strives to use her legal education and experience to positively impact, strengthen, and extend legal capacity in underserved immigrant communities.
Carolina received her J.D. from Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, and her undergraduate degree from the University of California, Irvine, where she majored in Criminology, Law, and Society. Carolina is admitted to the State Bar of California and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. She is fluent in Spanish.
Elizabeth Taufa - Senior Policy Attorney and Strategist, Immigrant Legal Resource Center
Elizabeth Taufa is a Senior Policy Attorney and Strategist based in Washington, D.C. Her work is focused on U.S. Citizenship and Immigration advocacy, particularly naturalization and policies related to equal access to immigration benefits.
Prior to joining ILRC, Elizabeth was a senior attorney with the American Bar Association’s Commission on Immigration managing their detention information line. She began her legal career representing children in removal proceedings at Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Boston and previously worked as an attorney advisor in the Office of Legal Access Programs at the Executive Office for Immigration Review. She is a native of Winchester, Virginia and holds a bachelor’s degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo and a law degree from Northeastern University School of Law where she completed internships with the ABA’s Immigration Justice Project in San Diego, Greater Boston Legal Services, and the Office of Immigration Litigation. She also volunteered with the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP).
Veronica Garcia - Staff Attorney, Immigrant Legal Resource Center
Veronica joined the ILRC in December 2017 as a San Joaquin Valley Law Fellow. Prior to joining ILRC, Veronica completed an Equal Justice Works Fellowship at Centro Legal de La Raza as an DACA/DAPA Emerson Fellow. Veronica is a graduate of Howard University School of Law. During Law school, Veronica interned at various immigrant right organizations, including Kids in Need of Defense and New York Legal Aid. Additionally, Veronica was recognized by the Hispanic Bar Association of Washington D.C. (HBA-DC) for her commitment to the advancement of the Hispanic community by being awarded the inaugural HBA-DC Foundation Scholarship.
As an immigrant who grew up in Oakland California, Veronica strives to use her legal education and experience working directly with immigrant communities.