Rita Arguello - Seattle Appeals Lawyer Reviews & Ratings

I have always been a passionate advocate for justice and protecting the rights of others. I was born in Managua, Nicaragua to parents who both fought against the Somoza Dictatorship during the Nicaraguan Revolution. I was then raised in Honduras until I was brought to the United States as a child. Later I graduated from Kenyon College in Gambier, OH with two degrees, one in Political Science and the other in International Studies.. At the beginning of 2006, I began working on immigration issues and was the program coordinator for Detention Watch Network under the then Executive Director, Andrea Black. While part of Detention Watch Network, I spearheaded the first national project dedicated to tracking the immigration raids led by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency and other enforcement strategies employed by the agency. This project titled, "Tracking ICE's Enforcement Agenda" was submitted as part of the briefing materials to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants in 2007 as part of the Detention and Deportation Working Group.. In law school, I became a member of the UNROW Human Rights Impact Litigation Clinic, part of the Washington School of Law from American University in Washington D.C. As a member of UNROW, I advocated in Federal Court against Michael Townley, a notorious torturer and assassin under the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile; and defended the rights of derivative U.S. citizens against unlawful discrimination and deportation by immigration officials in Federal and Immigration Court. While in law school, I also clerked at the American Civil Liberties Union's National Prison Project, and at Capital Area Immigrant Rights Coalition in Washington D.C. where I coordinated meetings and materials for the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights for their visit to U.S. immigration detention facilities.. After law school, I dedicated myself to advocating strongly for my clients in Immigration Court or in front of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service. I began practicing in New York, NY and later moved to Seattle, WA in 2013 to start my own firm until I met Guadalupe Cavazos at a free legal clinic hosted by the Mexican Embassy where we had both volunteered. Since then, we have worked together bringing the same passion to our work and launching a firm together that encompasses our vision of creating a law firm that fights fiercely for their clients' interests while advocating for positive change within the judicial system for the larger community.