Fresno Team

Katherine Krassilnikoff is a Managing Attorney at the Fresno office of Kids in Need of Defense (KIND). Katherine joined KIND in April 2016. Prior to joining KIND, Katherine worked as an immigration attorney providing direct representation at a Bay Area non-profit organization. Katherine’s caseload included asylum, U Visa, VAWA, DACA, Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, humanitarian parole, provisional waivers, naturalization, consular processing and family-based visas. Katherine received her J.D. from Santa Clara University School of Law where she earned a Social Justice and Public Interest Certificate. Katherine is licensed to practice in the state of California.

Andrea Swenson is a Senior Attorney with the Fresno Office of Kids in Need of Defense (KIND). Her work at KIND includes representing unaccompanied children detained in ORR programs and released into federal foster care. Prior to joining KIND, Andrea worked with Catholic Charities in Oakland representing unaccompanied children seeking asylum and special immigrant juvenile status, and at the Immigration Institute of the Bay Area where she represented clients in matters relating to family immigration, citizenship, and humanitarian visas. Andrea is a graduate of Boston College Law School and the University of Washington. She is a member of the California bar and she speaks Spanish.

Raquel Campuzano is the daughter of Mexican immigrant parents. She is a Central Valley native, raised in Orosi, CA. She earned her B.A. degree in Criminology, Law and Society from University of California, Irvine. She is a recent graduate of University of California, Davis School of Law. While in law school, she interned with immigration legal aid organizations and worked as a law clerk at a private immigration law firm. She joined KIND’S Fresno office in the summer of 2020 as a law student intern. Raquel is excited to return to KIND’s Fresno office in August 2021.

Rigoberto Lua is a Staff Attorney at KIND. He joined the KIND team in June 2022. In 2016, he graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a Bachelor of Arts in History and a minor in Chicanx studies. In 2020, Rigoberto graduated from Santa Clara University School of Law with a Juris Doctor. While in law school, Rigoberto gained valuable experience in criminal and immigration law through his work at the Santa Clara District Attorney’s Office, the Katharine and George Alexander Community Law Center’s Immigration Clinic, student organized legal aid clinics, and volunteer work at an immigration detention center in Arizona. Prior to joining KIND, Rigoberto gained experience working as an Honors Post-bar Law Clerk at the Santa Clara District Attorney’s Office, a Deputy District Attorney at the Monterey County District Attorney's Office and Contract Attorney at Gross & Klein LLP.

Miriam Y. Sanchez joined KIND's Fresno office as a Staff Attorney in February of 2022. Born and raised in the Central Valley, Miriam is the proud daughter of hard-working immigrant parents. Miriam knows the unique challenges the immigrant community faces and has focused her career on advocating for her community. Prior to joining KIND, she worked in the private sector as an immigration paralegal and as a staff attorney at a Fresno based non-profit immigration legal services provider. She has experience in handling cases with clients seeking asylum, cancellation of removal, family immigration, DACA, and naturalization. Miriam is a graduate of San Joaquin College of Law and California State University, Fresno. She is fluent in Spanish and is licensed to practice in California.

Alejandra Tovar is the daughter of Mexican immigrant parents. She was raised in Mexico and attended the University of Saint Nicholas of Hidalgo, Faculty of Law). After becoming a lawyer, she worked for the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs in one of the Regional Offices, and, later, for a law firm. Then, Alejandra took a position with the Consulate General of Mexico in Sacramento, California. She led the Department of Civil Registry and Visas, Powers of Attorney, and Acquisition of Mexican Citizenship. She also worked with the Protection Department, where she assisted with cases involving victims of crimes and human trafficking (VAWA and U and T visas), restitution for minors under the Hague Convention, and Mexican nationals benefitting from Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). In 2013, Alejandra joined the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation (CRLAF) as an Immigrant and ACA Fellow. In 2014 she was promoted to the Assistant Director of the Sustainable Rural Communities Project (SRCP). She was also a fully accredited BIA representative, and she was the coordinator of the monthly free DACA and Naturalization workshops for low income farm working families. In addition, through CRLAF, Alejandra provided assistance to unaccompanied minors in the Central Valley. Prior to leaving CRLAF, Alejandra was named the Co-Director of SRCP. Alejandra received her B.A. in International Law.

Alma Lemus was born in Michoacan, Mexico and raised in the small farm-worker community of Farmersville, California. Alma attended the community college, College of the Sequoias located in Visalia, California and transferred to the University of Southern California (USC) which is based in Los Angeles. Alma is the recipient of the prestigious Jack Kent Cooke Transfer Scholarship and holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from USC. Her passion for immigrant rights started while attending USC and being involved in various groups supporting undocumented students. Prior to joining Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), Alma worked at the Central American Resource Center (CARECEN) based in Los Angeles. While at CARECEN Alma worked for two different departments, the Survivors of Violence Unit and the Deportation Defense Team as a legal assistant and U-VIsa/VAWA Intake Coordinator. At CARECEN, Alma worked under the supervision of staff attorneys and prepared/filed various applications for immigration relief. At KIND, Alma will be working as a paralegal in the Fresno office.

Brenda Lopez is a paralegal at the Fresno Office of Kids in Need of Defense (KIND). She is the daughter of Mexican immigrants and is fluent in Spanish. Brenda is a Central Valley native who was born and raised in Lindsay, California. In the past she has worked with migrant communities in her hometown and surrounding cities. She moved to the Bay Area in 2014 and graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 2018 with her B.A. in Legal Studies and Spanish.

Bio coming soon!

Bio coming soon!

Bio coming soon!

Bio coming soon!

Bio coming soon!