Reopening In Absentia Orders Following Expedited "Mega Master" Calendar Hearings

Rebecca Chavez is a Staff Attorney at the National Immigration Project, bringing extensive experience in immigration law from across Texas’s legal landscape. Before joining the organization in 2026, she spent over four years at the Galveston-Houston Immigrant Representation Project, advancing from Staff Attorney to Senior Staff Attorney, where she represented detained immigrant clients in removal proceedings and litigated before federal district and appellate courts, including the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and the Board of Immigration Appeals. Earlier in her career, she practiced at Suárez Candler Law, PLLC, handling a broad range of immigration matters including asylum, VAWA self-petitions, U visas, and DACA applications.

Michelle Méndez serves as the National Immigration Project’s Legal Director. Prior to this role she served as the Director of the Defending Vulnerable Populations Program at the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC) where she provided training and technical support to immigration practitioners nationwide, co-authored AILA’s publication “Representing Clients in Immigration Court” publication, engaged in federal litigation, supervised remote response projects, and, from 2015 to 2017, oversaw CLINIC’s role in the Dilley Pro Bono Project. Prior to CLINIC, Michelle served as senior managing attorney at Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington (D.C.) where she represented detained and non-detained immigrants in Immigration Court, before USCIS, and on appeals to the Board of Immigration Appeals and the Fourth Circuit. Michelle began her legal career as an Equal Justice Works Fellow sponsored by DLA Piper. Michelle has taught the Immigration Litigation Clinic at Catholic University Columbus School of Law, was a Visiting Clinical Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School, assisted the Immigrant Rights Clinic at the University of Baltimore School of Law and serves as the Program Director for the National Institute for Trial Advocacy’s Immigration Public Programs. She is the co-author of the first edition of American Immigration Lawyers Association’s (AILA) “Trial Skills for Immigration Court: A Practical Guide to Effective Strategies and Tactics.”

Michelle has been counsel on a variety of federal litigation matters before federal district courts and U.S. courts of appeals, including J.O.P. v. U.S. Dep’t of Homeland Sec., 338 F.R.D. 33 (D. Md. 2020), Central American Resource Center v. Jaddou, No. 20-02363 (D.D.C., filed Aug. 26, 2020), Duncan v. Kavanagh, No. CCB-19-1465 (D. Md., filed May 20, 2019); CLINIC v. USCIS, No. 8:19-cv-01074 (D. Md., filed Apr. 10, 2019); S.A.P. v. Barr, No. 19-cv-03549 (D.D.C., filed Nov. 25, 2019); Duncan v. Barr, 919 F.3d 209 (4th Cir. 2019); and Perez-Vasquez v. Garland, No. 21-60524 (5th Cir., filed Sept. 29, 2021) (unpublished).

Prior to law school, Michelle worked at the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights (formerly CAIR Coalition) and AILA, and taught English to middle schoolers in France. Michelle holds a JD from the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, a BA from the University of Richmond, a Certificate in Nonprofit Management from Georgetown University, and a Professional Certificate in Peace and Conflict Resolution through the Rotary Peace Center at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand. She is a proud longtime resident of Baltimore, Maryland.