Our Team
Lauren Eagan
Founder & CEO
Lauren Eagan is the Founder and CEO of Eagan Immigration. Ms. Eagan’s practice encompasses all areas of immigration law, but her primary focus is finding solutions in cases other attorneys have deemed hopeless. In even the most difficult cases, she uses a combination of creativity and strategy to find solutions others thought were impossible, helping hundreds of undocumented immigrants obtain legal status. She is fluent in Spanish and has worked with individuals from more than 30 different countries.
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Ms. Eagan’s practice encompasses all areas of immigration law, but her passion is helping undocument immigrants obtain legal status, even after years of living undocumented in the United States. Ms. Eagan specializes in obtaining permanent residence for immigrant spouses of U.S. citizens and permanent residents and immigrant parents of U.S. citizens. She particularly enjoys complex and innovative cases, including cases requiring waivers, criminal analysis, unlawful entries to the United States, and other challenging factors. Ms. Eagan’s passion is helping undocumented immigrants obtain legal status in the United States, and she always looks for creative, strategic solutions to accomplish that goal.
Ms. Eagan also has extensive experience representing the vulnerable populations, including victims of domestic violence, individuals who have been mistreated at work, victims of violent crime, and asylum-seekers. She has extensive experience in Violence Against Women Act cases, T visas for victims of trafficking, and U visas for victims of violent crimes. Ms. Eagan has litigated cutting-edge asylum claims based on gender-motivated violence, LGBT status, and gang violence, among many others. She feels fortunate to have been of service to many individuals and families who have thrived after facing terrifying and violent situations.
Ms. Eagan practices federal immigration law before the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration Courts nationwide. She is an active member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association and its Washington D.C. and Seattle chapters. She is fully bilingual in Spanish, and she frequently gives presentations and workshops in the community and for professional organizations on various topics in immigration and nationality law in both English and Spanish.
Education and Licenses
Law Licenses
District of Columbia Bar, 2016
State Bar of California, 2011 (inactive)
Juris Doctor, 2011
University of San Diego School of Law
San Diego, California
Bachelor of Arts in Economics, 2007
Bachelor of Arts in Spanish, 2007
University of Washington
Seattle, Washington
Isabel Saavedra
Supervising Attorney
Isabel C. Saavedra is the Supervising Attorney at Eagan immigration. As Supervising Attorney, Ms. Saavedra leads the legal team and case preparation team. Ms. Saavedra works closely with the CEO to set creative and strategic legal strategies for our clients. Ms. Saavedra’s mission is to fight to keep families together and defend undocumented immigrants’ rights.
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Prior to joining Eagan Immigration Ms. Saavedra lived abroad (Colombia and Cambodia) for four years. Living abroad did not stop Ms. Saavedra from practicing Immigration Law and she founded her own firm where she was able to help many of her clients obtain their permanent residence (green cards) and citizenship.
Prior to starting her own practice, Ms. Saavedra worked for Catholic Charities D.C. as a staff attorney as part of its Immigration Legal Services team. At Catholic Charities, Ms. Saavedra represented clients in removal proceedings in immigration court and obtained relief for clients in the form of asylum, U visas, survivors of domestic violence, special immigrant juvenile status (SIJS), prosecutorial discretion, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), adjustment of status, advance parole and naturalization.
Ms. Saavedra has also worked on the front lines of immigration activist work. In 2015, Ms. Saavedra moved to Dilley, TX to work as a project attorney for the CARA Pro Bono Project. CARA was set up by Catholic Legal Immigration Network, the American Immigration Council, RAICES, and the American Immigration Lawyers Association. CARA works to ensure that asylum seekers (women and children) detained at the South Texas Family Residential Center receive competent legal representation while advocating for an end to family detention.
Being an immigration attorney was always Ms. Saavedra’s goal. She has been committed to advocating for the rights of immigrants in her community and spent three years, between 2012-2015, working at Immigration Legal Services of Long Island, (ILSOLI) assisting immigrants in all areas of family-based immigration law. At ILSOLI, Ms. Saavedra gained a wide knowledge and experience helping clients, both detained and non-detained, with naturalization applications, adjustment of status, discretionary waivers, survivors of domestic violence relief, unaccompanied children relief, and cancellation of removal.
Ms. Saavedra’s interest in immigration law came from her own experience as an undocumented immigrant from Colombia. Now Ms. Saavedra feels proud to be representing and empowering individuals to help them achieve the American dream.
Education and License
Law License
New York State Bar, 2015
Juris Doctor, 2014
University of Massachusetts School of Law
Dartmouth, Massachusetts
Bachelor of Arts in American History, 2009
State University of New York at Old Westbury
Old Westbury, New York
Michelle Perez
Senior Attorney
Michelle Perez has been an attorney at Eagan Immigration since July 2021. As Senior Attorney, Mrs. Perez assists all the attorneys but focuses on VAWA cases, complex criminal investigation cases, clients in removal proceedings, T-Visa cases, and any appealed cases. Some of her highlights at Eagan include winning a T-Visa case after a lengthy request for further evidence, and a grant of a client’s asylum/withholding of removal case in removal proceedings. Mrs. Perez has been practicing immigration law since 2015 and is a member of the Florida Bar. Prior to joining Eagan Immigration, Mrs. Perez lived and worked in Miami, Florida with a solo practitioner where she represented clients primarily with criminal-related removal issues in front of the immigration court. She is proficient in Spanish.
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Working in Miami, Mrs. Perez worked primarily with clients that had criminal-related removal issues and helped terminate proceedings or seek relief in front of the immigration court. She helped non-citizens obtain residency through family-based petitions and consular processing. She also appealed cases to the federal courts when she believed a client’s case was improperly adjudicated by USCIS or the Board of Immigration Appeals.
Helping people understand their legal rights was always Mrs. Perez’s passion. However, her love of the immigration field blossomed when she participated in her law school’s pro-bono immigration clinic for the last two years of school. In immigration court, you are not afforded an attorney so helping those who weren’t financially able to pay for a private attorney only furthered her passion. She gained courtroom experience in helping detained and non-detained clients with relief such as discretionary waivers, cancellation of removal, and asylum. When Mrs. Perez became a licensed attorney, she continued representing those clients until their cases were completed.
Mrs. Perez comes from a family of immigrants and has helped her parents become citizens of this country. She views and treats each client’s case as if her own family was seeking to remain in this country. Her mission is to help clients seek relief and defend their rights.
Education and License
Law License
Florida State Bar, 2015
Juris Doctor, 2015
Miami, Florida
Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance, 2011
Florida International University
Miami, Florida
Natalia Villar
Attorney
Natalia Villar is the Consultation Attorney and an Associate Attorney at Eagan Immigration. She has been with Eagan Immigration since July of 2021. Ms. Villar conducts and reviews all consultations. At Eagan Immigration, Ms. Villar focuses on VAWA cases, T Visa Cases, and specializes in waivers of inadmissibility and consular processing. Some of her highlights at Eagan include a successful T Visa Appeal and conducting and reviewing hundreds of consultations. Ms. Villar has been practicing Immigration Law since 2019, and she is a member of the Arizona State Bar. Although Ms. Villar was born in Texas, she lived in Mexico for the first 17 years of her life. As such, she is fully bilingual and bicultural.
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Prior to joining Eagan Immigration, Ms. Villar worked for a full-service law firm in Mesa, Arizona. She worked on business immigration cases including TN Visas for Canadian and Mexican Nationals. She also worked on naturalization applications, DACA, family petitions, VAWA, U Visas, T visas, adjustment of status applications, consular processing, and waivers. Ms. Villar’s previous experience includes the American Civil Liberties Union and the Tempe City Attorney’s Office.
Ms. Villar has always been passionate about immigrant rights. During law school, she participated in the Immigration Law and Policy Clinic at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, where she was granted the CALI Excellence for the Future Award for being the top student in the immigration clinic. She also participated in an initiative that gave free consults twice a month and participated in several naturalization fairs. Ms. Villar is passionate about human rights, and she focuses on that calling by helping immigrants reach their goals.
Education and License
Law License
Arizona State Bar, 2019
Juris Doctor, 2018
Arizona State University, Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law | Phoenix, Arizona
Alexandra Gillett
Attorney
Alexandra Gillett (“Alex”) is an experienced and compassionate immigration attorney with a long commitment to social justice and immigrant rights. Alex has been with Eagan Immigration since July of 2021. At Eagan Immigration, she works on all cases but focuses on VAWA, T Visa, U Visa, and SIJ cases. Some of her highlights while working at Eagan include winning several T Visas after lengthy requests for evidence from USCIS. Alex has practiced immigration law since 2015 after she graduated from DePaul University College of Law in Chicago. In her first five years as an attorney, Alex worked for Justice For Our Neighbors Michigan (“JFON”) in Grand Rapids. There she provided free immigration legal services in West Michigan and specialized in cases for unaccompanied minors and youth (DACA, SIJ, Asylum), families (family petitions, consular processing), survivors of domestic violence and other serious crimes (VAWA, U Visa), the LGBTQ+ community, and refugees and asylees.
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While at JFON, Alex worked with organizations dedicated to underserved communities, like the YWCA and the Grand Rapids Pride Center, to better serve their immigrant clients through special legal clinics. Alex later opened a small, solo immigration law firm in West Michigan in 2020 before joining Eagan Immigration in 2021.
Alex has experience counseling and advocating for clients at every stage in their immigration journey, and she has done so during times of extreme and unprecedented changes in immigration law. She has represented clients in DACA, asylum, removal defense, consular processing, and other cases at a time when those programs were frequently under attack and reshaped by the Trump administration. In 2019 and 2020, Alex volunteered her legal skills in Tijuana, Mexico to serve asylum seekers waiting in Mexico. She provided consultations to people preparing to go into U.S. immigration custody at the southern border about their legal rights and immigration options. She also counseled asylum seekers subject to the Migrant Protection Protocols (“MPP”) and waiting for their immigration court hearings.
Alex is a member of the State Bar of Michigan and can practice immigration law anywhere in the United States. She is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (“AILA”), Immigration Law Section of the State Bar of Michigan, and Michigan Coalition of Immigrant and Refugee Rights. She also plays an active role in the Pro Bono Committee for the AILA Michigan Chapter and continues to volunteer her legal skills with nonprofit organizations in Michigan.
Education and License
Law License
State Bar of Michigan, 2015
Juris Doctor, 2015
DePaul University College of Law
Chicago, Illinois
Bachelor of Arts in Education and Spanish, 2010
Minor in Psychology
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Aya Mahjoub
Attorney
Aya Mahjoub is an Attorney at Eagan Immigration. She has been with Eagan Immigration since November of 2021. At Eagan, Ms. Mahjoub focuses on VAWA cases and adjustment of status. She has been practicing Immigration Law since 2020, and she is a member of the Texas State Bar. Ms. Mahjoub is fully bilingual in Arabic.
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Once she received her law license, Ms. Mahjoub worked with firms that specialized in family-based petitions and humanitarian-based cases. She has worked on obtaining visas for immediate relatives, adjustment of status applications, naturalization applications, waiving grounds of inadmissibility, and asylum cases.
During her time in law school, Ms. Mahjoub dedicated an entire year fighting for asylum seekers in the Immigration and Asylum Clinic at DePaul College of Law.
Coming from a family of immigrants, Ms. Mahjoub saw first-hand how daunting the immigration system can be and has since promised to provide her utmost professional assistance to make the process less stressful, and even enjoyable. Ms. Mahjoub strives to provide every client with the time, attention, and effort that she would give her closest family member.
Education and License
Law License
Texas State Bar, 2020
Juris Doctor, 2019
Chicago, IL
Bachelor of Science, 2015
Psychology
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA
Laura Waits
Attorney
Laura Waits has been an Attorney at Eagan Immigration since January of 2022. At Eagan, Laura focuses on VAWA, U-Visa, and SIJS cases. Laura has more than 25 years of experience as an attorney and member of the Texas State Bar. Prior to joining Eagan Immigration, Laura worked in business law, both for-profit and nonprofit, as well as wills, guardianship, and immigration law. Laura also spent 10 years living and working in Honduras, a country she considers her second home. She is proficient in Spanish.
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During Laura’s time in Honduras, she and her husband, Alex, collaborated with the indigenous Miskito people to open a middle and high school that currently serves over 500 students with a staff of over 45 Hondurans. Laura experienced first-hand the factors that cause individuals to leave everything behind and make the very dangerous journey across borders in search of a way to meet the basic needs of their families. Laura counts these years as the very best of her life and is still a legal permanent resident of Honduras.
Laura’s passion for immigration law began as her family attempted to navigate the immigration system with their youngest daughter, Cumi Joy. Laura views each case from the perspective of her own daughter’s challenges. She continues to provide pro bono legal services to Spanish-speaking clients through local non-profit organizations in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Her mission is to formulate compassionate, intelligent, creative solutions to each case she encounters.
Education and License
Law License
Juris Doctor, 1993
Norman, OK
Bachelor of Arts, 1990
Letters
University of Oklahoma
Norman, OK
Tilly Nguyen
Attorney
Tilly Nguyen is an attorney at Eagan Immigration and has been a member of the State Bar of Texas for six years. Tilly started her immigration career in law school as a paid research assistant in nationality law and a student attorney at her law school’s immigration clinic. At Eagan, Tilly focuses on VAWA, U Visas, and cases in immigration court.
Tilly was born and raised in Austin, Texas. She later attended the University of Houston and graduated with honors. Tilly earned her law degree at Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University.
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Tilly helps solve complex and challenging immigration problems involving criminal records and provisional waivers of inadmissibility. Tilly has successfully defended clients from removal by winning cancellation of removal and asylum cases before the asylum office and immigration court. She has extensive experience in family and humanitarian immigration, writing appellate briefs for review before the Board of Immigration Appeals, and requesting bonds for detained clients. Some of her greatest accomplishments include re-opening her client’s deportation case after 26 years, thereby allowing him to gain legal permanent residency under NACARA and winning a humanitarian asylum claim for a K’iche Guatemalan refugee before the immigration court.
Tilly’s passion for immigration grew from the love she received from her childhood nanny, an immigrant that raised her from the day she was born until she graduated high school and whom she is incredibly grateful to call family.
Tilly’s respect for the migrant community runs deep and she enjoys advocating for those who need it the most.
Education
Law License
Juris Doctor, 2014
Houston, Texas
Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography and Digital Media, 2010
Minor in Art History, Cum Laude
Houston, Texas
Leslie Aparicio
Legal Supervisor
Leslie Aparicio is the Legal Supervisor at Eagan Immigration where she has the pleasure of meeting the clients at first glance to begin their Immigration journey. As the legal assistant, Ms. Aparicio takes initiative in remaining communicative with clients to ensure their needs are being met. Ms. Aparicio has been serving at the firm since mid April 2017
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Born in Fairfax, Virginia from a family of Salvadoran immigrants, Ms. Aparicio moved quite frequently from city to city in the northern Virginia region, finally settling in Ashburn, Virginia to gain more experience in the law field.
Ms. Aparicio landed her first position at a law firm at the end of 2015 at the law firm of Rodriguez & Sanabria PLLC. As the Receptionist, she gained sufficient exposure in the law field contributing to day-to-day tasks such as answering phone calls, scheduling appointments, and billing.
As time progressed, she became more interested in the Immigration field giving her an opportunity to learn more about cases such as SIJS, Adjustment of Status, Naturalization, U-Visa, T Visa, and VAWA. At the law firm, she also had the advantage of acquiring client intake as well as case determination along with the help of the attorney.
Ms. Aparicio takes pride in providing clients with the utmost customer service experience in addition to establishing a client-friendly relationship. She enjoys working with the immigrant community and is excited to continue fighting to keep families together.
Ms. Aparicio graduated from Northern Virginia Community College with an Associate Degree in Liberal Arts. She is currently enrolled at George Mason University studying to obtain her paralegal certificate. During her free time, Leslie enjoys volunteering at her local church, traveling, and spending time with family.
Education
Associate Degree in Liberal Arts, 2020
Northern Virginia Community College
Annandale, Virginia
Marcela Velasquez
Project Manager
Marcela Velasquez is the Project Manager at Eagan Immigration. She is responsible for communicating with the team regarding any process changes, ensuring quick case progression and turnaround, managing and supporting team leads, and conducting analyses for case process improvement.
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Marcela was born and raised in Virginia and is the daughter of immigrants; Her father is from El Salvador and her mother is from Colombia. Marcela’s parents raised her with an example of hard work after starting their own construction company from scratch in the United States. Marcela has worked and studied throughout Virginia. She has experience in various industries, including the restaurant industry, security, and the administrative field.
Marcela enjoys working with the immigrant community and is excited to use her heritage as the daughter of immigrants to help other families like hers. Marcela enjoys spending time with her husband, playing with her dog, Frank, and preparing new recipes she finds on Tik Tok!