Jennifer Mendoza

I am from Houston, Texas and am I child of Mexican immigrants. I am the first in my family to attend law school and become an attorney.

I graduated with my BA in Global Studies from St. Edwards University in Austin, TX in 2014. I received my JD from Texas Southern University’s Thurgood Marshall School of Law in Houston, TX in 2020. There I graduated with honors, magna cum laude. While in law school, I participated in the immigration law clinic and clerked at several private immigration firms in the Houston area. I became liecensed to practice law in New Mexico in 2022.   

I am a Family Law Attorney under the children’s team representing unaccompanied minors and their guardians in state court proceedings such as kinship guardianship, emancipation, and custody. I also provide direct representation for immigration removal proceedings. I will be working out of NMILC Santa Fe office.

Previously I worked at New Mexico Legal Aid where I represented survivors of domestic violence in state district court to obtain orders of protection. I would also assist survivors obtain favorable results in divorce and custody proceedings after obtaining orders of protection.  Additionally, I managed a state-wide kinship guardianship department where I would represent grandparents seeking kinship guardianship of their grandchildren who has been abused, neglected, or abandoned by their biological parents. Before that I was a trial attorney at the First Judicial District Attorney’s office primarily focused on the prosecution of misdemeanor domestic violence charges.