Frances Arroyo is on a mission to advocate and support immigrants as they navigate becoming citizens in the United States. Her passion stemmed from her firsthand encounter while working in restaurants in Washington D.C. during college. She saw how immigrant workers were living in fear due to being unable to legalize their status and being separated from their families. This drove her to want to fight and advocate for immigrants who did not have a voice for themselves.
“It became clear that immigration wasn’t just a legal issue; it was a humanitarian crisis. I knew I had to be part of the fight to protect and empower these communities. That passion led me to law school, and eventually, to founding Los Angeles Legal Advocates, a firm dedicated to ensuring no immigrant faces the system alone,” shared Arroyo. Since the Trump administration implemented its new immigration policies, Arroyo has had to protect her clients as they navigate their citizenship process. “Immigration firms need to do more than just process applications—they must become warriors for immigrant rights. That means standing up to unconstitutional policies, litigating aggressively against government overreach, and innovating our services to legalize as many people as possible, as quickly as possible. I started Los Angeles Legal Advocates in 2020 with nothing but a printer and ink, determined to build a firm that wasn’t just a business, but a movement. Today, we’re one of the fastest-growing immigration firms in the country because we’ve refused to back down. We don’t just take on cases—we take on the system, filing civil rights lawsuits against the government and defending immigrants against unjust policies,” she added.
The U.S. is home to one-fifth of the world’s international counting for 14.3% of the U.S. population. 77% of those immigrants are residing legally as naturalized citizens, lawful permanent residents, temporary lawful residents and unauthorized residents including asylum seekers and DACA recipients. Between 2023 and 2024 there was a net increase in the U.S. population of 3.3 million due to migration, however, ICE still deported 271,484 individuals under the Biden administration in 2024.
As of today, Arroyo is finding it harder for immigrants to navigate the system for her clients more than ever. “We are seeing delays and backlogs-processing times have skyrocketed, leaving immigrants in limbo for years. Arbitrary elimination of immigration programs such as “temporary protected status” has been canceled, family separation and deportation threats to even DACA recipients have made it very challenging for our clients,” she explained.
There are over 538,000 DACA recipients with the majority of recipients under 36 and one-fourth of recipients living in California. Arroyo’s firm in Los Angeles is in one of the largest sanctuary cities in the U.S. with a big portion of her clients falling under DACA. Arroyo is currently processing renewals at record speed to protect Dreamers before policies change and proactively exploring all legal options to transition DACA recipients to permanent legal residents. “For us, DACA is not a debate—it’s a commitment to protecting young immigrants who have built their lives in the U.S.,” Arroyo said. Additionally, Arroyo is filing mass civil lawsuits against the government to challenge unconstitutional immigration policies, maximizing efficiency by setting up high-powered legal operations that allow Los Angeles Legal Advocates to legalize thousands of immigrants at a time, proactively securing legal protections for clients rather than waiting for deportations and engaging with grassroots organizations as a community liaison.
Arroyo’s firm is also advocating for policy changes, “We are actively pushing for immediate protections for Dreamers, elimination backlogs and streamlining green card approvals, end to family separation and stronger legal protections for asylum seekers as asylum laws need to be restored to protect those fleeing persecution,” she stated. Bringing families back together is one of Arroyo’s passions and most recently she reunited a father and daughter. “One of our most powerful cases involved a father who was separated from his six-year-old daughter at the border. After months of fighting, we reunited them. Seeing that little girl run into her father’s arms reminded me why we do this work—we aren’t just winning cases, we’re reuniting families and changing lives. We’ve also helped thousands of immigrants who would have otherwise been left in limbo due to unjust policies get legal status. Our firm is built on these victories—and we’re just getting started,” she added.
While ICE is stating they are prioritizing removing illegal criminals, Arroyo isn’t waiting for her clients who may fall under DACA or asylum to potentially be deported. Her firm is expanding nationwide to take on more cases, doubling down on litigation and filing civil lawsuits against government agencies that violate immigrants’ constitutional rights.