Vera Institute of Justice

Ailin Buigues is the program director for Vera’s Unaccompanied Children Program, where she leads a national initiative to increase access to legal information and representation for unaccompanied children facing deportation.

Before joining Vera, Ailin was a founding member and managing attorney at Immigrant Defenders Law Center (ImmDef), a Los Angeles–based social justice legal service provider that launched in 2015. At ImmDef, Ailin supervised a team of staff attorneys and represented detained and nondetained unaccompanied children facing deportation. Before that, Ailin was a staff attorney at Esperanza Immigrant Rights Project. Her practice primarily focused on representing detained and nondetained immigrants in removal proceedings and conducting Know Your Rights presentations and legal screenings through the Legal Orientation Program.

Ailin holds a JD from Loyola Law School in Los Angeles and is a member of the State Bar of California.