Welcoming Alma Puente to the IRCSGV Board: Fierce, Compassionate Counsel

Alma Puente is an experienced immigration attorney in Southern California. The sole partner of The Law Offices of Alma D. Puente in El Monte, she began her career in immigration advocacy by joining the ranks of the Immigration & Naturalization Service (INS) at the U.S.-Mexico border at Calexico, California. The daughter of an immigrant mother, Alma came to understand at an early age the difficulties and challenges that immigrants face in the United States and she came to know that to enact real change she needed to learn U.S. bureaucracy from the inside. Eventually transferring to the Los Angeles District Office of Citizenship & Immigration Services (CIS), she completed her law degree while working for CIS. Because of her wide-array of professional experience, Alma is able to assist clients in all matters of immigration law from visas to naturalization handling green card renewals, adoptions, naturalization, deportation and removal proceedings, refugee/asylum matters, and more. Alma is a graduate of Chapman University and Loyola Law School, and we are honored to welcome her to the IRC Board. 

Even as a 7 year old girl, Alma knew she would one day become an attorney. Her desire to study immigration law began as she got old enough to begin to really understand her mother’s painful experience as an immigrant. Her mother suffered deportations from the United States and was painfully separated from her husband before ultimately getting her waivers approved, and it branded Alma. Hearing her own mother recount those memories ignited a particular passion in Alma for pleading the cause of the immigrant. And it was with all of that in mind she made the difficult decision right after college to join the ranks of the Immigration & Naturalization Service (INS) at the U.S.-Mexico border at Calexico. It was, as she recalls it, an impossible choice. “I really felt like I needed to understand the agency from the inside out. [I thought] If I am going to fight this monster, I need to be inside its belly.” And so she did. Alma says her two years at the border were the hardest in her life emotionally and psychologically. Knowing well the heightened responsibility of being the child of an immigrant mother, she recalls seeking her mother’s blessing. “Gosh Mom, you were arrested by people doing the job I am thinking about taking.” Ultimately, though, Alma had her mother’s support because Alma made her goals crystal clear from the beginning. Her desire was to learn and to help. Still, she found herself in her early-twenties with a .40 caliber weapon on her hip, working for an entity she was morally and ethically opposed to. “Really, I got through it knowing this was going to be helpful,” she recalls.

Alma brings this experience to her law practice. In many ways, though, she feels that the work of immigration law has changed to an unimaginable degree since 2016. She says, “Before, I had this insider information and knowledge knowing there are things I can do, and I think my outlook was hopeful knowing we can do this. Now, though, we’ve done an about-face and I feel like a rookie all over again.” She laments the present reality in which she has a given set of facts knowing that, were the year 2014 and not 2020, the case would be a ‘slam-dunk.’ Because of the current government’s position and antagonistic tendencies, Alma says it is hard for her to confidently give clients assurance their case will go well – because she simply cannot be sure any longer. She says, “We are dealing with an entirely different DHS [Department of Homeland Security]. It’s not the DHS I worked for.” What brings her hope is the possibility that, with an upcoming election cycle, there is real opportunity to change immigration law statutorily and, at the very least, to end the abuse of discretion we see so often in the present-day. “That is what is getting me through: casting my vision toward November and even more toward January.” 

“What would I say? ‘Please allow me to tell you a story’.”

As for her contributions to the IRC, Alma would love to expand both outreach and workshops as well as increase collaboration with pro bono attorneys to ensure as much public awareness and immigrant representation as possible. Because respondents in immigration proceedings are not constitutionally entitled to an attorney, and knowing that represented people are five times more likely to get some sort of relief, making sure the IRC is their utmost to lessen the gap of represented applicants in immigration court is a huge priority for Alma, certainly one of her goals. 

Despite everything she has seen, she sees with “hopeful vision.” And with the possibility of a new Administration, Alma sees the possibility of comprehensive immigration reform – or certainly real, concrete steps toward it. “We’ve been casting our vision in that direction since 2001 with the extension of Section 245(i) of the Immigration and Nationality Act [allowing adjustment of status in the U.S. even if currently out of status], but we continue to come up short. Nothing has happened.” Much more, Alma laments the damage done by the disastrous 1996 law signed by President Clinton – the so-called Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 – often referred to as IIRIRA. Alma says that, “Since 1996 we have been looking, sort of hoping that those very restrictive bars that return people to their country will be done away with. Those restrictive ten-year bars present horrific situations for people.” 

“It’s real life. It’s front-and-center. My constant prayer is for my clients, for the judges, for the consular officers looking over my clients’ cases. I pray for a sense of temperance and kindness and mercy that they would see I have tried to put forth my clients’ humanity.”

Ultimately, though, one can know the law inside and out but still not effectively move the needle on the conversation surrounding immigration locally or nationally. It takes all of us to do that. And while she does not seek out conversations she knows will be antagonistic with those utterly opposed to her life’s work, if a situation presents itself she will always engage seeing an opportunity to begin to change a hardened heart. “What would I say? ‘Please allow me to tell you a story’.” It is the humanity of a person’s story that does the hard work of changing the heart and mind of even the most hardened immigration opponent. When Alma finds herself disheartened or weary, she need not look far for encouragement. Her own contributions to the well-being of immigrants gives her strength to carry on, allowing her to see with hopeful vision. 

One of her favorite cases was of a physician, a U.S. army veteran, who had been deployed several times during Operation Desert Storm. He lived the vast majority of his life thinking he was a U.S. citizen. He was born in Mexico, but both of his parents were U.S. citizens and when they brought him to the U.S., the immigration officer put a U.S. admission stamp on the back of his Mexican birth certificate. For his entire life in the U.S. until that point, this was sufficient. When it came time to retire, though, it became extremely problematic. He wanted to retire under the current Administration but was told he would be unable. Despite being able to get passports in the past, he could no longer. He sought out Alma’s services saying, “Here’s my problem. I’ve served my country. I’ve educated myself to the utmost. I am a medical doctor. But I have no proof of citizenship.” Thankfully, after a great deal of research, Alma was able to find a rarely known, rarely used exception allowing for non-citizen members of the military deployed during a period of conflict to get citizenship. “We were able to get this man a U.S. citizenship certificate. He’s now in his sixties and, really, if we were not able to do this for him he would have been deported.” 

“I really felt like I needed to understand the agency from the inside out. [I thought] If I am going to fight this monster, I need to be inside its belly.”

Earlier this year, Alma sat on the panel for a documentary film screening of “Status Pending,” hosted by the Immigration Resource Center and the Center for Racial Reconciliation at Fellowship. Claudia’s story is featured in the film, and Alma thinks of Claudia’s plight and what her struggle has been with her two daughters while her husband is stuck in Mexico. “When you think what these girls who are U.S. citizens are going through, it’s just heartbreaking. Their lives are ruined. They sometimes live in their car – and here was a man trying to do everything right.” The system is deeply unfair. 

How does Alma do it day after day? “Sometimes all I have, I just hang onto the cloak of Jesus. I pray for my clients every day.” Yes, there is a great deal of emotional fatigue associated with immigration advocacy. Still, Alma says you simply cannot forget that people like Claudia are struggling. “It’s real life. It’s front-and-center. My constant prayer is for my clients, for the judges, for the consular officers looking over my clients’ cases. I pray for a sense of temperance and kindness and mercy that they would see I have tried to put forth my clients’ humanity.” 

Immigrants and their advocates have, particularly in this most recent season, been put in impossible situations. “We have to do everything we can. These are human beings.” 

We are grateful for Alma’s experience and all she brings to our work. We celebrate her contributions to the future of the Immigration Resource Center. Join us in welcoming her!