2025 Immigrant Rights Convening: Representing Indigenous Clients in the Legal System

2025 Immigrant Rights Convening:

Representing Indigenous Clients in the Legal System

Legal Tools, Cultural Understanding, and Language Access

Join the Center for Human Rights & Constitutional Law

for a Free Hybrid Training 

Thursday, August 28, 2025

1:00 - 3:00 pm PST

1505 17th St., Santa Ana, CA 92705

The training will be in a hybrid format, however,

guests are strongly encouraged to attend in-person.

Lunch will be provided.

CLE Credit: Approved for 2 California Elimination of Bias MCLE credits. 

A uniform certificate of participation will be provided for attorneys in all other states. 

The Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law invites attorneys and legal advocates to our 2025 Immigrant Rights Convening: Representing Indigenous Clients in the Legal System on August 28, 2025, from 1–3pm PT in Santa Ana, California. This CLE-earning hybrid training will equip legal professionals with the skills and cultural understanding necessary to better provide effective and culturally responsive representation for Indigenous immigrants from Mexico, Guatemala, and other parts of Latin America. We strongly encourage attending in person to connect directly with our expert panel and to fully benefit from the rich, interactive experience this in-depth training offers. 

The training will be led by a panel of experts from Comunidades Indígenas en Liderazgo (CIELO) and the Mixteco/Indígena Community Organizing Project (MICOP), two organizations with deep experience working alongside Indigenous immigrant communities. Each panelist brings a wealth of knowledge from both legal and community-rooted perspectives.

Attendees will learn how to identify when an Indigenous client may need interpretation, navigate the complexities of securing qualified Indigenous language interpreters, and advocate for meaningful language access in court. The training will also cover how attorneys can educate judges and other legal professionals about Indigenous language access, highlight the common issue of misclassifying Indigenous languages, and explain the additional steps attorneys may need to take to ensure Indigenous clients can fully participate in their legal proceedings. In addition to these practical skills, panelists will provide critical context on Indigenous migration patterns to the United States, language diversity within and across Indigenous communities, and the cultural and socioeconomic distinctions that set Indigenous migrants apart from other immigrant populations. Together, these tools will help legal practitioners implement best practices for working with Indigenous clients and provide stronger, more equitable representation.

Presenter Bios

Luis López Resendiz (him/el) is Ñuú Savi and the Director of Operations at Comunidades Indígenas en Liderazgo (CIELO), an Indigenous women-led non-profit organization that works jointly with Indigenous communities residing in Los Angeles. Luis is committed to fighting for the rights of Indigenous peoples in spaces where Indigenous peoples are not represented and to visibilize their migration in the United States. Mr. López Resendiz graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a B.A. in the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies. He is a poet whose work has been presented at the Center for Race and Gender at UC Berkeley. Mr. Resendiz has been featured in La Jornada, La Trinchera, KPFK, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, and El Excelsior.

Aurora Pedro (she/ella) is a queer Maya Akateko and Q’anjob’al living in Los Angeles, CA. She is the manager of the Center for Indigenous Languages and Power (CILP) at Comunidades Indígenas en Liderazgo (CIELO), an Indigenous women-led non-profit organization that works jointly with Indigenous communities residing in Los Angeles and across borders. One of their priorities is to fight for social justice through a cultural lens. Aurora is a trained interpreter, multilingual in English, Akateko, and Q’anjob’al. She incorporates her linguistic skills and traditional practices in her role as a doula for Akateko and Q’anjob’al parents. Aurora co-facilitates CIELO’s cultural sensitivity workshops, educating others on how to better work with Indigenous Maya communities from Guatemala. She has co-facilitated workshops for Keck Medicine of USC, the Vera Institute of Justice, Acacia Center for Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Public Social Services (DPSS), and the LAPD. She continues to develop her skills to assist and advocate for the rights of Indigenous communities.

Elizabeth Ramirez Barragan (she/ella) is the Supervising Immigration Attorney at the Mixteco/Indígena Community Organizing Project (MICOP), where she leads immigration legal services for Indigenous clients. Born in Oaxaca, Mexico, and raised in California, Elizabeth holds a J.D. with a concentration in International Law from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law. She has worked extensively in removal defense and affirmative immigration cases, focusing on the unique language and cultural barriers Indigenous clients face. Elizabeth advocates for language justice and culturally informed legal representation, with a commitment to empowering Indigenous clients and challenging systemic gaps in access to justice.

Benito Camarillo (him/el) is a native of Juxtlahuaca, Oaxaca, Mexico, and was raised in Santa Maria, California, from the age of twelve. He holds a B.A. in Spanish Literature from California State University, Fresno. In 2017, he became the first staff member in Santa Maria when MICOP expanded from Oxnard, serving as an outreach specialist for their immigration program. In 2022, he was accredited by the U.S. Department of Justice as a legal representative with MICOP. Benito is currently part of MICOP’s interpretation services team and also works as an independent interpreter for local criminal courts in Santa Barbara County and for hospitals in Ventura County. His mission is to ensure linguistic access for the Mixteco Indigenous community by serving as a bridge between service providers and their clients, enabling both sides to share, inform, and express themselves in their own language—bridging cultural and linguistic gaps in legal and community contexts. He brings a wide range of experience in Mixteco interpretation across both private and nonprofit sectors and is eager to share his expertise with others.