Withholding of Removal and CAT

Andrew joined the ILRC in May 2019 as a Staff Attorney focusing on immigrant youth issues. Prior to joining the ILRC, he worked at Staten Island Legal Services representing clients in a variety of affirmative and defensive immigration matters. Previously, Andrew worked at the Unaccompanied Minors Program of Catholic Charities Community Services in New York, representing detained and released unaccompanied minors in removal defense.

Andrew received his J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center, where he participated in the Center for Applied Legal Studies Clinic. Andrew earned his B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley, where he majored in Political Economy of Industrial Societies. Andrew is admitted to the bar in New Jersey and New York. He is fluent in French and Spanish with some knowledge of Italian, Portuguese, and Arabic.

Priscilla Olivarez is a Policy Attorney and Strategist based in San Antonio, Texas.  In her role with the ILRC, Priscilla works alongside other Texas advocates to develop and promote local and state policies that protect the dignity of immigrant communities.  Prior to joining the ILRC, Priscilla was a Managing Attorney at American Gateways (AG), a nonprofit organization that provides direct legal services in immigration matters.  While at AG, Priscilla focused her efforts on representing and assisting individuals who were in immigration detention. She helped manage the organization's Legal Orientation Program, providing assistance to unrepresented individuals in immigration detention, as well as its National Qualified Representative Program (NQRP), which provides legal representation to individuals deemed mentally incompetent in immigration proceedings. Priscilla also provided direct representation to individuals in detention, with a focus on advocacy for individuals with mental disabilities or other heightened vulnerabilities.  Priscilla has represented clients before the Immigration Court, the Board of Immigration Appeals, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Priscilla's other advocacy experience includes working abroad, providing legal support to survivors of human trafficking in the Philippines.  Priscilla has also advocated on behalf of survivors of domestic violence and volunteered near the Texas-Mexico border representing unaccompanied minors in immigration proceedings.  Outside of her immigration work, Priscilla has advocated for fair housing for vulnerable populations, and worked to coordinate a national research study that examined racial discrimination in the housing market.  

Priscilla is a graduate of Texas Tech University School of Law and is licensed to practice law in Massachusetts, Texas, and before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Aruna Sury is an immigration attorney with vast experience in removal defense, immigration consequences of crimes, and federal appeals. She is based in Seattle, WA and provides consultation and litigation support to attorneys throughout the country. Through ILRC's Attorney of the Day program, Aruna provides legal guidance to criminal defense and immigration counsel. She regularly contributes to ILRC publications by authoring and updating content that enables practitioners to provide high quality representation to their clients. Aruna also presents ILRC trainings and CLE courses on a variety of topics.

Since obtaining her law degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 2001, Aruna has dedicated her career to the areas of immigration and civil rights in various settings in San Francisco, Seattle, and Austin. She has worked in law firm and solo practice environments as well as in non-profit and public organizations, including Washington Defender Association, University of Washington, Kids in Need of Defense, and Political Asylum Project of Austin (now American Gateways). Aruna's personal interest is in immigrants' due process rights, particularly the right to effective counsel and expansive access to judicial review. She has secured published and unpublished Ninth Circuit decisions in these and other areas. She has also successfully litigated cases in the First, Fourth, Fifth, and Eleventh Circuits.