Marion Donovan-Kaloust

Marion (“Mickey”) Donovan-Kaloust is the directing attorney at the Immigrant Defenders Law Center’s (ImmDef) Riverside, California, office. ImmDef defends immigrant communities against injustices in the immigration court system and is leading the fight for the right to counsel in deportation proceedings. While ImmDef has its headquarters in Los Angeles, California, in 2015 Mickey spearheaded its expansion into the inland counties of southern California. This region, known locally as the Inland Empire, is a vast and diverse region with a large immigrant population, but there had not been a robust legal community in place to meet the representation needs of the community, including children.

Mickey established a cutting-edge Skadden Fellowship with ImmDef, in partnership with the Law Office of the Public Defender of Riverside County (LOPD) to offer immigration legal services to system-impacted children and expand the LOPD’s overall capacity to assist eligible children to pursue Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS). SIJS is an immigration benefit for children who were abused, abandoned, or neglected. Children who successfully navigate the SIJS process receive legal permanent residence in the United States and may eventually become U.S. citizens.

Mickey developed templates and practice materials for the LOPD, greatly expanding its capacity to help vulnerable children obtain legal status. She also educated many of the important local players through her zealous advocacy for her clients and by providing crucial training to local judges, attorneys, and probation departments. At the close of her fellowship, Mickey opened ImmDef’s first permanent office in Riverside.

You can see the legacy of Mickey’s work in ImmDef’s Riverside office, where she now leads a vibrant team of seven attorneys and support staff. ImmDef is serving more clients in the Inland Empire than ever before. While the practice of immigration law is extremely challenging, especially in the current climate, fearless lawyers like Mickey are fighting for their child clients, pushing back as hard as possible against injustice, and using every legal tool at their disposal.

You can learn more about ImmDef and its important work here.

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