Joanna E. Cuevas Ingram

Joanna E. Cuevas Ingram works to advance and defend the rights of diverse low-income immigrant youth, workers, and families through community-centered affirmative impact litigation, technical assistance, and administrative advocacy, as well as community-led policy advocacy and education. Admitted to practice in California and New York, Joanna is a litigator who brings significant due process, equal protection, and civil rights impact litigation experience to NILC. She currently addresses equal access to representation, deferred action for immigrant workers, health and economic justice, and challenges to discriminatory law enforcement policies, practices, and executive orders.

Joanna has led several successful impact cases at NILC, including Make the Road New York (MRNY) v. Pompeo, securing nationwide relief enjoining the U.S. Departments of State and Health & Human Services from applying the Trump Administration’s “public charge” rule and Health Care Proclamation to tens of thousands of immigrant visa applicants; MRNY v. DHS et al., securing over 16,000+ pages of documents in DACA Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation; and Zelaya v. Hammer et al., a precedent-setting $1.175 million civil rights class action settlement on behalf of nearly 100 Latinx plaintiffs alleging racial profiling in a 2018 workplace raid by over 90 ICE and IRS agents in Tennessee. The settlement included immigration relief for named plaintiffs and the opportunity for class members to request a letter from ICE confirming class membership in applications for immigration relief.

On weekends, Joanna enjoys short story anthologies, NYC parks, swim lessons, and dance parties with her preschoolers.