Krsna Avila
Krsna is based in San Francisco, California, and joins Cornell Law School’s Path2Papers with a wealth of personal and professional immigration experience. Krsna immigrated from Mexico to the United States as a child.
Prior to joining Path2Papers, Krsna worked at the Immigrant Legal Resource Center as an attorney focused on DACA advocacy and implementation, among other issues relating to noncitizens. Krsna also worked as the legal services manager at Immigrants Rising where he provided legal support to undocumented youth throughout the country.
At Cornell Law School, Krsna worked at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Washington, DC, and the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California. He also participated in the Asylum and Convention Against Torture Appellate Clinic at Cornell Law School, where he helped represent clients before the Board of Immigration Appeals. Krsna also volunteered with the European Council on Refugees and was an editorial member for the Cornell Legal Information Institute U.S. Supreme Court Bulletin.
Krsna earned his undergraduate degree from the University of California–Davis; and his law degree from Cornell Law School where he received the 2017 Freeman Award for Civil-Human Rights for his commitment to civil rights and public service.
Camiel Becker
Camiel Becker is certified as a specialist in immigration law by the State Bar of California and has over twenty years of immigration law experience. He represents a number of companies and individuals in the employment-based green card and nonimmigrant visa processes. He has advised many immigrants with DACA, TPS, and humanitarian parole about the process for transitioning to employment-based green cards and non-immigrant visas. Camiel speaks regularly to lawyers across the country about employment-based visa options for DACA recipients.
Dan Berger
Dan Berger is a partner at the immigration law firm of Curran, Berger & Kludt in Northampton, MA; an immigration fellow/visiting scholar at Cornell Law School; and an honorary fellow of the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys. He is on the Legal Advisory Board of the Presidents’ Alliance on Immigration and Higher Education, on the Legal Advisory Council of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute, and a member of the USCIS Liaison Committee and the Afghanistan Task Force for the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA).
Dan is a frequent writer and speaker on immigration, including after the 2020 election for the Brookings Institute on recommendations for the Biden/Harris Administration and also on strategies to support international entrepreneurs. He co-edited updated editions of Immigration Options for Academics and Researchers and the International Adoption Sourcebook released in 2021. He also wrote an Issue Brief for the American Council on Education (ACE) after the 2016 election, and was a coauthor on a “Note” on immigration in 2017 for the National Association of College and University Attorneys (NACUA). Dan has been quoted in various media including the Atlantic, USA Today, Al Jazeera, and the Huffington Post, and is an advisor for the American Immigration Council on their informational website on STEM immigration initiatives.
AILA recently awarded Dan the President’s Commendation for “exemplary service to the President and AILA,” including being on the USCIS Headquarters Liaison Committee, writing practice advisories, serving on the AILA Afghanistan Taskforce, and being on the editorial board of the AILA Law Journal.
Dan has a particular focus on DACA and undocumented students, evaluating options for longer term status, including in monthly sessions for students at thedream.us and the International Language Institute Free English Program. He is also an immigration law advisor on a grant on the use of DNA technology in immigration, and coauthored a peer reviewed article in Science on the use of DNA technology to address family separation at the border.
Dan developed his interest in immigration at Harvard University, where he studied immigration history and taught English to adult refugees. He graduated from Cornell Law School and practiced immigration law for over 20 years. His current resume can be found here.
Miguel Bocanegra
Miguel is from Seattle and has been practicing immigration law since 2004. Prior to joining Path2Papers, he had a diverse practice as a director at MacDonald Hoague and Bayless, representing individuals and companies in various stages of the immigrant and nonimmigrant process. He has experience with family-based petitions, removal defense, naturalization, as well as employment-based immigrant and nonimmigrant visas. He has taught as an adjunct lecturer at the University of Washington School of Law.
Katherine Gin
Katharine is an immigrant rights entrepreneur and founder of The Legalization Project, which mobilizes support for undocumented immigrants seeking permanent legal status in the United States. Katharine currently leads the Bay Area DACA Initiative, a $13-million initiative funded by Crankstart that aims to legalize at least 40% of the 20,000 DACA recipients in the Bay Area over the next four years. As part of that legalization effort, she serves as strategic advisor to Path2Papers.
While at Immigrants Rising, Katharine raised more than $40 million for the undocumented community, including $10 million that was reinvested as grants, stipends, and fellowships to undocumented individuals. She was the leader of a visionary team that created numerous initiatives, including the $14.4-million California Campus Catalyst Fund, which bolstered systemic support for undocumented students at 32 public colleges and universities throughout California; and the $7.41-million SEED Initiative, which supported more than 1,000 immigrant entrepreneurs in California.
Throughout her career, Katharine has worked to enhance career and education opportunities for low-income people of color. Her work with young people has been highlighted in numerous national media outlets including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Pod Save America, PRI’s The World, and Fast Company.
Jaclyn Kelley-Widmer
Jakki Kelley-Widmer has worked with hundreds of DACA and undocumented clients since 2013, including through the Immigration Law and Advocacy Clinic she founded at Cornell Law School in 2020. Read more about Jakki and her legal team helping a DACA recipient reunite with her father as well as a DACA recipient study abroad.
In addition to work with undocumented communities, Jakki’s legal expertise and practice experience includes advocacy for detained individuals, asylum seekers, applicants for naturalization and special immigrant juvenile status, and survivors of human trafficking and domestic violence. At Cornell, she teaches and supervises law students to provide legal services. She regularly publishes both public-facing and scholarly articles on immigration law issues.
Previously, Jakki was an Equal Justice Works fellow at La Raza Centro Legal in San Francisco, where she focused on representing immigrant youth and their families. She also taught legal writing at the University of California–Berkeley School of Law and clerked at the San Francisco Immigration Court through the Department of Justice Honors Program.
Jakki received her law degree in 2013 from the University of Michigan Law School, cum laude. While in law school, she worked at the East Bay Community Law Center in Berkeley, California, and was a student attorney representing survivors of human trafficking. She received awards recognizing her work on behalf of women and the Latinx community.
Jakki is a member of the California Bar. She is fluent in Spanish.
Megan Kludt
Megan Kludt was named managing partner at Curran, Berger and Kludt in early 2021. Megan specializes in complex immigration cases in the areas of business, academia, and scientific research. She also is an expert in humanitarian and family-based immigration with extensive experience representing clients at USCIS interviews and in the immigration courts in Boston and Hartford. She has given presentations at academic institutions and spoken at local panels, and coauthored articles on federal litigation in the employment-based context, national interest waiver petitions, and TPS in removal proceedings. Megan has served on the AILA National Board of Publications Committee. In 2014 and 2015, she was selected by AILA to provide emergency legal aid to children at the U.S./Mexico border, and, in 2016, was honored as one of AILA New England’s Pro Bono Champions. She has since led various pro bono projects training volunteers and students in asylum and humanitarian work. She teaches immigration law at Tufts University and Western New England School of Law and is a visiting DACA immigration fellow at Cornell University.
Megan works with many DACA holders and has given campus talks and consultations to DACA and undocumented students to go over options across the spectrum of immigration law, especially employment-based options.
Megan earned her law degree at Boston University, where she focused on immigration and international law issues. She developed her interest in immigration teaching English in Cambodia, Spain, and the U.S. Megan is fluent in Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese.
Lily Kurtz
Lily is a passionate defender of immigrant rights with significant experience in asylum and refugee services, particularly in securing protection and improving access for vulnerable LGBTQI+ individuals. At Rainbow Railroad, she was a crucial figure in assessing and facilitating pathways to safety for queer refugees globally, with a primary emphasis on Latin America. Prior to that, she served as the volunteer and intern coordinator and lead of LGBTQI+ programming at Al Otro Lado in Tijuana.
Lily is highly skilled in trauma-informed crisis response, having screened hundreds of LGBTQI+ migrants in Mexico to connect them with vital services. She also has significant experience in managing large-scale volunteer operations, both in-person and remotely, and in developing robust online programming for hundreds of undergraduate, graduate, and law student interns.
Lily graduated Summa Cum Laude from Southern Oregon University with degrees in anthropology, Spanish, and gender, sexuality, and women’s studies.
Steve Yale-Loehr
Steve Yale-Loehr is coauthor of Immigration Law and Procedure, the leading immigration law treatise, published by LexisNexis. He also is professor of immigration law practice at Cornell Law School, is a project attorney for the law school’s DACA Project, and is of counsel at Miller Mayer in Ithaca, NY. For many years he chaired or was a member of the business immigration committee for the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA). He currently is a member of AILA’s benefits litigation and asylum committees. He has testified many times before Congress and is frequently quoted in the media. He graduated from Cornell Law School in 1981 cum laude, where he was editor-in-chief of the Cornell International Law Journal. He received AILA’s Elmer Fried award for excellence in teaching in 2001, and AILA’s Edith Lowenstein award for excellence in the practice of immigration law in 2004.
