Kristen Cates joins IJC from the Tahirih Justice Center, where she was a senior staff attorney representing immigrant gender-based violence survivors in their defensive and affirmative immigration matters. Prior to joining Tahirih, Kristen was a supervising attorney with the Houston-based nonprofit, BakerRipley, where she worked collaboratively as part of the Deportation Defense Houston (DDH) initiative, providing pro bono legal representation to immigrants detained in the greater Houston area who faced imminent removal. Prior to that, Kristen worked as a staff attorney and Immigrant Justice Corps Fellow at RAICES in San Antonio, Texas, where she was part of the Family Detention team and provided pro bono representation to the mothers and children detained at the Karnes County Residential Facility. Kristen was also previously a staff attorney and Immigrant Justice Corps Fellow at Safe Horizon Immigration Law Project, located in Brooklyn, New York, where she provided pro bono legal services and representation to immigrant survivors of violence.
Throughout her career, Kristen has served as an expert and thought partner to community-based and legal services organizations on issues related to immigration detention and the prison-to-deportation pipeline; serving immigrant communities with heightened marginalization and vulnerabilities, including LGBTQ+ immigrants and immigrant survivors of gender-based violence; and the importance of providing trauma-informed and client-centered legal services. Kristen has also given talks and participated in panels on these and other issues facing immigrant clients impacted by U.S. immigration policy and enforcement.
Kristen is a graduate of Georgetown University and Georgetown University Law Center. She speaks Spanish and Italian.
