Elizabeth Chance '97 to Serve as Immigration Specialist for Santa Clara County
Elizabeth Chance '97 has been hired by Santa Clara County Public Defender's Office to serve as an immigration law specialist charged with ensuring that the county provides noncitizens with legal advice regarding the consequences of criminal convictions. Santa Clara County's funding of the position, only the third of its kind in California, drew media coverage including an article in the San Jose Mercury News.
Santa Cruz, Alameda, and San Francisco counties have created positions for in-house immigration experts in the wake of Padilla v. Kentucky, the U.S. Supreme Court case that established the requirement that noncitizens be advised of the potential consequences of criminal conviction.
"If I could create my dream job, this would be it," said Chance, a Santa Cruz County deputy public defender whose experience with serving immigrant clients includes working with the UC Davis School of Law Immigration Law Clinic as a student.