Adhemir is an ILD Managing Attorney providing consultation and direct representation through ILD’s Legal-Education Partnerships with the California State University (CSU) and California Community College (CCC) systems, unique programs that provide immigration legal services to students and community members at dozens of public higher education campuses throughout the state. A longtime immigration attorney and former public defender, he is a recognized expert in the field of “crimmigration”. He has focused his career on defending immigrants facing criminal charges as well as those who have already suffered convictions.  

EXPERIENCE Prior to joining ILD, Adhemir helped establish the Immigration Program at the Monterey County Public Defender’s Office, serving as their first-ever Immigration Specialist. In this role, Adhemir trained and provided critical technical assistance to criminal defense attorneys in Monterey County to ensure they properly advised their clients to avoid adverse immigration consequences of any criminal convictions. He provided Padilla advisals for all of the office’s clients as well as for the clients of the Alternate Defender’s Office. 

Adhemir has also represented hundreds of non-citizen misdemeanor clients at arraignment in the early resolution court, preventing them from accepting immigration-harmful deals and negotiating immigration-safe resolutions for those clients. 

He worked as a deputy public defender in the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office Immigration Unit, where he represented clients who were fighting their cases from immigration detention and provided Padilla advisals for the office’s clients facing criminal charges. 

Previously, Adhemir was an immigration attorney at Becker & Lee, where he specialized in complex removal cases and detention work, and at the Alameda County Public Defender’s Office, where he represented many monolingual Spanish-speaking non-citizen clients. 

Adhemir has conducted seminars for criminal defense attorneys on topics including the immigration consequences of criminal offenses for non-citizens and advanced issues in representing detained individuals who have experienced prolonged detention. 

EDUCATION Adhemir holds a B.A. in History and Economics from Columbia University and a J.D. from UC Law San Francisco (formerly UC Hastings College of the Law). He is a member of the California Bar and is fluent in Spanish.