Brief Biography
Stephanie Izaguirre first became interested in Immigration Law in 2001 while working at the US Consulate in Rio de Janeiro. After interviewing hundreds of people applying for all types of visas to the United States, she saw a real need for good immigration advice. She graduated from law school at the University of Denver, spending a year as a visiting student at the University of North Carolina, and passing the North Carolina Bar in 2005. While in law school, Stephanie was an intern at the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network (RMIAN) and also spent a semester working as part of the law school's immigration law clinic representing asylum clients.
From there, Stephanie worked as an adjudications officer for US Citizenship and Immigration Services in San Juan, Puerto Rico. While there, she became intimately familiar with adjustment of status and naturalization, as well as removing conditions on permanent residence, adoption petitions, and the naturalization of minors.
After leaving USCIS and working with a private law firm in San Juan, Stephanie returned to Colorado Springs, Colorado, passed the Colorado Bar, and opened the Izaguirre Law Firm in November 2010.
In July 2014, Stephanie heard that immigrant women and children were being detained in Artesia, New Mexico with extremely limited access to legal representation. She traveled to Artesia and what she saw left a permanent impact on her – both personally and professionally. Children were being detained with inadequate clothing and food. Moms and their children were being deported daily with no meaningful opportunity to consult with an attorney. Eventually, attorneys from across the country responded to this crisis, forming the AILA Artesia Project. (AILA is the American Immigrant Lawyer’s Association.) Stephanie eventually made three separate trips to Artesia to provide pro bono legal services to the women and children detained there. In June 2015, Stephanie, was awarded the Michael Maggio Pro Bono award in recognition of her pro bono service. More importantly, after a year long battle fought on many fronts by hundreds of lawyers around the country, the Obama Administration has announced that it will drastically limit family detention.
The Izaguirre Law Firm focuses on family-based immigration benefits and humanitarian immigration cases, to include asylum and visas for victims of crimes and domestic violence. We also handle family and probate cases when the cases have an immigration connection. For example, in July 2014, Stephanie began meeting with dozens of teenagers, primarily from Central America, living in our community. Many of these teenagers are eligible for legal status as Special Immigrant Juveniles, but these cases require multidisciplinary legal representation and few practitioners work in both area. If a child is living in the United States and has been abandoned, abused, or neglected by one or both parents, she can qualify for residency in t
