Fragomen, the world’s leading provider of immigration services, is pleased to announce the appointment of Danny Alicea as the firm’s latest “Fragomen Fellow” effective October 6, 2014. The Fragomen Fellowship is a two-year rotating position the firm established to enhance the pro bono immigration services provided by the City Bar Justice Center, the pro bono affiliate of the New York City Bar Association.
Mr. Alicea will focus on advocacy to enhance the access to and quality of counsel for immigrants in New York. To this end, he will be responsible for training and mentoring pro bono lawyers. He will also work closely with two new Immigrant Justice Fellows in taking on a number of new cases involving unaccompanied immigrant children from Central America. In addition, he will continue the critical community education and outreach activities that previous Fragomen Fellows spearheaded.
Carmita Alonso, partner with Fragomen and member of the Board of the City Bar Fund, which oversees the City Bar Justice Center, said, “We hope to continue to serve as a model in pro bono immigration representation and ensure there is a regular pool of qualified lawyers able to help those who desperately need legal services.”
Mr. Alicea comes to this position after one year serving as Pro Bono Coordinator at Immigration Equality, which provides free legal assistance to LGBT and HIV+ immigrants, especially asylum seekers. In this capacity, he mentored pro bono attorneys from more than 60 different law firms in their representation of immigrant clients. Prior to attending law school, Mr. Alicea worked as a paralegal for two years at Immigration Equality, where he assisted attorneys with asylum cases and achieved status as an accredited representative by the Board of Immigration Appeals, which permitted him to represent clients in immigration matters. As a law student at the public-interest oriented City University of New York School of Law, Mr. Alicea also amassed significant clinical experience related to immigration, including internships with the HIV Law Project, the New York Legal Assistance Group and in Immigration Court in New York City.
“Danny’s experience mentoring pro bono attorneys handling immigration matters, and his dedication to practicing law in the public interest, made him an outstanding choice for our organization and clients,” said Lynn Kelly, Executive Director of the City Bar Justice Center. “Danny is extremely enthusiastic about ensuring that low-income immigrants have access to legal representation, and he is thus an ideal match for this very important service provided by the City Bar Justice Center.”
Mr. Alicea replaces former Fragomen Fellow Barbara Camacho, who is joining the Fragomen firm as its new Pro Bono Manager. Ms. Camacho will be responsible for coordinating and mentoring Fragomen attorneys in the United States in their pro bono representation of clients in removal proceedings, asylum, and applications for a variety of available immigration benefits.
Lisa Koenig, a partner at Fragomen who supervises the Fragomen Fellow, said, “Danny’s selection as our firm’s new Fellow at the City Bar Justice Center, along with the firm’s new partnership with Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) to represent unaccompanied immigrant children, helps to solidify the firm’s commitment to providing pro bono legal services to low-income immigrants.”
Austin Fragomen, Chairman of Fragomen and former Chairman of the Board of the City Bar Fund, said, “We are pleased to continue to sponsor a full-time Fellow at the City Bar Justice Center to support pro bono immigration work. Our partnership with the City Bar is very important to the Firm. We feel that it makes a real difference to those in need.”
About Fragomen
Fragomen is recognized as the world’s leading global corporate immigration services provider. The firm employs more than 500 attorneys, solicitors or similar immigration professionals, and over 1,500 additional immigration professionals and staff located in more than 40 offices in 21 countries. For more than 60 years, Fragomen has represented a broad range of companies, organizations and emerging businesses, working in partnership with clients to facilitate the hiring and transfer of employees worldwide.
About the City Bar Justice Center
The City Bar Justice Center is the largest department of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York Fund, Inc., the 501(c) (3) affiliate of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. The Justice Center increases access to justice by leveraging the resources of the New York City legal community. The Justice Center operates the city’s busiest legal hotline and annually provides direct legal representation, information and advocacy to over 20,000 poor and vulnerable New Yorkers in areas including immigration, foreclosure, bankruptcy, elder law, homelessness, veterans’ assistance and cancer advocacy.