Senior Attorney
Regina Jefferies has 17 years of experience practicing immigration law and is a Martindale-Hubbell Preeminent rated attorney. Dr. Jefferies is a Senior Attorney with Green Evans-Schroeder and handles complex appellate litigation, including before the Board of Immigration Appeals and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. She also has considerable expertise in asylum law, consular processing and waivers, adjustment of status, U Visa, and U.S. citizenship claims.
Dr. Jefferies is an Assistant Professor in the Law, Diversity and Justice program at Western Washington University, an Adjunct Lecturer at the University of New South Wales Faculty of Law & Justice, and an Affiliate of the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law. She holds a PhD from the University of New South Wales, a Master of Studies from the University of Oxford and a Juris Doctorate from Arizona State University. Dr. Jefferies previously worked as a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota Law School, as a Visiting Scholar at the University of California Los Angeles, as a Consultant for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and as an attorney in private practice in Arizona, where she lived and worked for more than a decade.
Dr. Jefferies speaks Spanish and is currently located in Bellingham, Washington. She works with clients throughout the United States and overseas.
Honors and Awards
2021 John S. Lancy Distinguished Alumni Award, Arizona State Law Journal
2018 National Advocate of the Year, Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota
2017 Special Recognition Award, Advocates for Human Rights
2017 – 2021 Scientia PhD Scholarship, University of New South Wales
2013 – 2016 Rising Stars, Super Lawyers
2014 – 2022 Martindale Hubbell AV Preeminent® Rating
Professional Associations and Memberships
Arizona State Bar Association, Member 2006 – Present
American Immigration Lawyers Association, Member 2006 – 2019, 2021 – Present
Case Law Editorial Team Member, Canada/United States International Journal of Refugee Law 2019 – Present
Steering Committee, UNSW Forced Migration Research Network 2019 – Present
Affiliate, Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law 2017 – Present
Member, Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law 2017 – Present
Member, Law & Society Association 2016 – Present
Pro Bono Work
Team Co-Leader, Travel Ban Rapid Response Team 2017
National Asylum Committee Member, AILA 2017 – 2018
National USCIS Field Operations Committee & Past Vice Chair, AILA 2013 – 2017
Arizona Chapter Chair, American Immigration Lawyers Association 2012 – 2013
Board of Governors, American Immigration Lawyers Association 2012 – 2013
Co-Founder, No Dream Deferred Coalition 2012 – 2015
Recent Publications and Media Appearances
Regina Jefferies, Jane McAdam and Sangeetha Pillai, ‘Can We Still Call Australia Home?: The Right to Return and the Legality of Australia's COVID-19 Travel Restrictions' (2021) Australian Journal of Human Rights (in press)
Regina Jefferies, ‘Bringing Externalisation Home: The International Civil Aviation Organization and “Entry Screening” in Australia' (2021) Globalizations (in press)
Regina Jefferies, ‘Transnational Legal Process: An Evolving Theory and Methodology' (2021) 46(2) Brooklyn Journal of International Law (in press)
Regina Jefferies and Daniel Ghezelbash, ‘Doubling Down on Deterrence: The Biden administration's anti-asylum rhetoric harms refugees and won't win votes', Just Security (online, 22 July 2021)
‘“Do not come, do not come”: Why the Biden administration's blunt message to migrants sounds familiar to Australia', Rashida Yosufzai (SBS News, 12 June 2021)
‘Refugee Policy in the U.S. and Australia', Breakfast (Radio Adelaide, 29 January 2021)
Languages
- English
- Spanish
