San Francisco Team

Bio coming soon!

Ana Moraga Archila brings direct services, teaching and entrepreneurial experience to her position at KIND. Prior to KIND, Ana was at Esperanza Immigrant Rights Project where she provided legal representation to unaccompanied minors in removal proceedings and detained adults found mentally incompetent to stand trial. In addition, Ana led group and individual trainings for detainees at Adelanto Detention Center for the Legal Orientation Program. Ana’s interest in the law was awakened through her experience as co-founder of the organization MuJER- Mujeres por la Justicia, Educación y el Reconocimiento (Women for Justice Education and Awareness). Ana served as MuJER’s Executive Director for five years. She developed spaces of personal and political empowerment with Central American women sex workers and advocated for policies to end violence against women in Guatemala. Ana’s work with MuJER was recognized by the White House in 2012; she was honored as a Champion of Change for her contributions in the development of the Americas. Ana has led workshops and spoken worldwide on non-violence against women, sex work, sexual health and reproductive rights, and women’s rights. Ana joins KIND as a member of the San Francisco Immigrant Legal Defense Collaborative. Ana’s work is driven by her experience as an immigrant in the US and sustained by the love of her partner and family, in addition to her practice in the Afro-Brazilian martial art of Capoeira. Ana received her J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law and is a member of the California State Bar.

Amanda Maya is KIND’s Senior Attorney in the Legal Department in San Francisco and she is dedicated to advocating and amplifying the voices of immigrants. Prior to KIND, Amanda was a Removal Defense Attorney at the Jewish Family & Community Services East Bay (JFCS East Bay) non-profit organization and worked in partnership with Stand Together Contra Costa. During her tenure at JFCS East Bay, she provided trauma-informed legal representation to families in removal proceedings and those appearing before the San Francisco Asylum office. In addition, Amanda was a litigation associate at Orrick, Herrington, & Sutcliffe LLP where she worked on several civil rights matters to redress social issues in her community, including representing claimants in a Federal Tort Claims Act case that challenged President Trump’s family separation policy. Amanda graduated with Honors from Cornell University with a Bachelor of Science in Industrial and Labor Relations. She then enrolled and graduated from Berkeley Law where she received the Berkeley Law Public Interest and Social Justice Certificate along with Pro Bono Honors. While in law school, she was the Co-Chairperson of the Board of Advocates and on the board of La Raza Law Student Association.

Gabriela Moraga has centered her professional career around advocating for immigrants’ rights. Before joining KIND, she graduated magna cum laude from the University of San Francisco School of Law where she was the President of Student Immigration Law Association. She also participated in both the Immigration and Deportation Defense Clinic and Immigration Policy Clinic as a clinic student. While a clinic student she worked with a detained client through the BIA Pro Bono Project where she successfully advocated for the client to be released from detention and reunite with his family. Gabriela was also a law school extern at Centro Legal de La Raza where she helped develop the Youth Project, which was dedicated to working with unaccompanied minors. After becoming a licensed attorney, Gabriela returned to her alma mater of USF to support the Immigration and Deportation Defense clinic as an attorney where she represented adults and youth in removal proceedings. Gabriela has now joined KIND as a Senior Attorney to continue her passion in working with immigrant youth.

Bio coming soon!

Ana Black felt honored to join the KIND legal team in September 2022 as a staff attorney in the San Francisco office. As the daughter of a Salvadoran, Ana Black, in her teens, was one of 50 original organizers of the nation-wide Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES) during the 1980s civil war in that country. She has volunteered at the National Center for Immigrants’ Rights, and as an immigration attorney, she has directly represented clients in a wide variety of affirmative applications from Special Immigrant Juvenile Visas, DACA, family petitions, and citizenship to AAO appeals while working at Catholic Charities East Bay. At a removal defense private law firm, she has also represented clients at the EOIR. Ana Black’s dedication to working with children has steadily developed over the 20-plus years being directly involved in the education of her own children and their classmates, particularly as a writing coach, effecting child-oriented policies while on the Board of Directors of St. Joseph the Worker school in Berkeley, CA, and as a parent liaison to St. Joseph the Worker church’s Social Justice Committee. Her work at KIND is close to her heart and will continue her lifetime commitment to social justice and the needs of immigrant children.

Bio coming soon!

Johanna Vega Contreras joined KIND’s team as a Staff Attorney in January 2023 to continue her career supporting immigrant youth. An immigrant herself, Johanna was born in Michoacán, México and immigrated to the United States with her parents at a young age. Through her experience navigating the immigration system firsthand Johanna developed a strong interest and passion for immigration law. Johanna obtained her Juris Doctorate degree from the University of San Francisco School of Law where she participated in several clinics. During her second year as a law student she was part of the Criminal and Juvenile Justice Clinic where she made frequent appearances in criminal court to represent undocumented clients who were charged with misdemeanors in San Francisco. As a third-year law student she participated in both the Immigration Policy Clinic and the Immigration and Deportation Defense Clinic where she developed the merits of asylum cases and co-authored briefs for the Board of Immigration Appeals. Johanna also worked as a law clerk at The Arns Law firm where she gained experience in civil litigation matters. Upon graduating law school Johanna accepted a Fellowship with the Immigration and Deportation Defense Clinic at USF where she gained experience representing adults and youth in the greater Sacramento and San Francisco Bay areas in their immigration matters including U-nonimmigrant Status, Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, and Asylum applications in both Immigration Court and the San Francisco Asylum Office. Johanna is a member of the California State Bar and speaks English, Spanish, and French.

Bio coming soon!

Marili Joselin Iturbe Guadarrama is a Staff Attorney at Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) San Francisco. Marili strives to provide holistic, victim-centered, and trauma-informed representation for all her clients. Marili joined KIND in December of 2022 as a Staff Attorney, where she represents unaccompanied children before USCIS, EOIR and state court, and provides mentorship to pro bono attorneys. Before joining KIND, Marili served as a Staff Attorney with Step Forward Foundation (SFF) where she worked on cases before USCIS, EOIR, the BIA, and the Ninth Circuit. In addition, Marili interned and volunteered with various immigration non-profits prior to joining SFF. Marili earned her J.D. degree from Santa Clara University School of Law where she participated in a variety of immigration law clinics. As a law student, Marili worked on an amicus curiae brief for the Inter-American Court of Human Rights addressing the rights of human rights defenders and victims of gender-based violence in Mexico. As a daughter of immigrants, Marili is committed to defending her client’s human and civil rights and believes in empowering her clients to become advocates of their own stories. Marili is licensed to practice law in California and speaks English and Spanish.

Valeria Cuba is a Senior Paralegal at Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), where she oversees the paralegal program, supports staff attorneys, and provides legal services to refugee and migrant children seeking legal representation in their immigration proceedings. She joined KIND in Summer 2023 as a Senior Paralegal for KIND’s San Francisco Office. Prior to joining KIND, Valeria worked as a Courtroom Clerk for the Family Law Department at the Sonoma County Superior Court. Previous to that, she worked at One Legal, a legal tech company, assisting attorneys and self-represented litigants file their court documents electronically. She also worked at Legal Aid of Sonoma County where she provided legal assistance to victims of domestic violence, human trafficking, and civil harassment. Valeria worked as an Immigration Paralegal for a small law practice in Boston providing assistance to the immigrant community with various refugee and other immigration benefit paperwork. Valeria holds a Juris Doctor from Suffolk University Law School and a Bachelors of Arts in Political Science with a minor in History from the University of California, Davis. She is motivated by empowering the immigrant community for she is also an immigrant, a beneficiary of the AB 540 law, and a former Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) holder. Valeria prepared her own case and became a U.S Legal Permanent Resident in 2019.

Jeremy Costello is a Paralegal supporting Legal Programs with KIND in San Francisco. He joined in September 2022. Before working with KIND he served as an AmeriCorps volunteer with the Central American Resource Center (CARECEN) in Los Angeles. As a paralegal he worked on naturalization cases and taught citizenship education classes to prepare future citizens for their USCIS interviews. Previously he worked as a teacher’s aid in Oakland and in Spain. Jeremy received his bachelor’s degree in history from UC Berkeley.

Bio coming soon!

Yamileth is a Paralegal at KIND’s San Francisco office. She joined the KIND team in November 2021. Prior to KIND, Yamileth worked 4 years as a paralegal in a private immigration firm where she met with clients, including unaccompanied minors, and prepared applications for asylum and other forms of relief. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a B.A. degree in Political Science and a minor in Spanish Language and Literature. While in undergrad she was an active member of the Latino Pre-Law Society and volunteered at legal clinics for low-income immigrant communities in the Bay Area. She is the daughter of Mexican immigrants and a passionate advocate for immigrant rights. Yamileth is fluent in Spanish.

America Hernandez is an immigrant from Jalisco, Mexico who has spent the majority of her life in the Central Valley of California. She is a recipient of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. As an undocumented student with limited opportunities, she worked hard to pursue her dreams of going to college. She graduated early from high school at the age of 16 and attended Fresno State from 2000 to 2003. She obtained her Bachelor’s Degree in Chicano and Latin American Studies and has a Minor in English and another in Spanish. America has always been passionate about immigrant rights and social justice issues that affect minorities. She actively worked on the A.B. 540 campaign in 2001 in California that allowed for undocumented students to be able to pay in-state tuition in California, and has also been a public advocate for the Dream Act since 2004. America frequently shares her story with the media, and also with locally and nationally elected officials such as Nancy Pelosi and Kamala Harris in hopes of elevating support for the Dream Act and general Immigration Reform. She has also been presented with certificates of recognition by the offices of Council Members Esmeralda Soria and Oliver Baines, Congressman Jim Costa, California Assembly Member Joaquin Arambula and Senator Kamala Harris for her work in the community and her advocacy around DACA and Dreamer issues. Presently, America works with Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) as a Social Services Program Manager, California to ensure that unaccompanied immigrant children in the Central Valley are able to access essential services and resources, and advocating for them when needed. America is also a giving member of the Central Valley Latino Giving Circle Network, which is a philanthropist group that invests in Latino-led organizations that serve the Central Valley. She has also collaborated with other Dreamer Leaders of the Central Valley on creating opportunities for undocumented youth to be involved in the civic process, despite not being able to vote, by helping to educate and empower eligible voters.

Anayeli Cruz Cazares joins KIND in February 2023 as the Senior Social Services Coordinator in the San Francisco office. She was born in Tlatelolco in Mexico City and immigrated to the U.S. when she was ten. Her lineage comes from the Huasteca Náhuatl of the state of Hidalgo in Mexico on her father’s side and from her mother’s side from the state of Michoacán. She is the first person in her family to attend and graduate from college. She completed her master’s degree last May, at the California Institute of Integral Studies, where she studied in the program of Women, Gender, Spirituality and Social Justice. She have been involved in undocumented immigrants’ rights throughout her work career working in organizations that provide low-cost immigration legal services and as an activist within groups like the Napa Valley Dream Team where she helped to co-edit a book called D.R.E.A.M. [Desire, Recognize, Educate, Act, Motivate: A Book of Undocumented Migrant Spectrums of Education [in] access].

Bio coming soon!