Raha Jorjani is a managing immigration defense attorney with the Office of the Alameda County Public Defender in Oakland and directs California’s first public defender deportation defense unit. Recognizing the need for representation for indigent individuals impacted by both the criminal legal system and the immigration system, Raha founded and implemented California’s first public defender deportation defense model, which has been replicated locally and nationally. From 2007 until 2014, she served as a clinical professor at the UC Davis Law School. In 2015, she taught the first “Crimmigration” course offered at UC Berkeley Law School. Since 2005, Raha has provided pro bono representation and legal assistance to hundreds of immigrants, most of them detained,
Raha Jorjani
Raha Jorjani
Bernstein Parker Activist Writer Fellow, Leading Edge Fellow
before the Immigration Court, BIA, U.S. District Court, U.S. Court of Appeals, and California state courts.
Raha regularly conducts trainings for attorneys and state court judges on the immigration consequences of criminal convictions. She received the Community Service Award from the Iranian American Bar Association’s Northern California Chapter, and her contributions to immigrant justice were recognized by the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild.
At Mesa, she worked on a memoir and exposé of the Immigration Detention and Deportation system.
Photo: Jean Melesaine