Current Role & Responsibilities
Aglae Eufracio is the Immigration Division Supervisor, which is responsible for advising our public defenders on the immigration consequences of criminal charges our noncitizen clients face to help them understand the risks and benefits of accepting a particular plea. The division provides the advise through a written advisal memo that discusses whether the client can become deportable or inadmissible, is eligible for relief from deportation or other forms of immigration relief (i.e., family-based or crime victim-based visas), is eligible for an immigration bond, is able to travel abroad, and is eligible to naturalize in the future. The memo may also suggest plea options to protect the client’s immigration status and forms of relief.
Education & Background
Aglae obtained her Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Texas at Austin in 2013. She received her Juris Doctorate from St. Mary’s University School of Law in May 2016. She became a Texas-licensed attorney in November 2016. She is also admitted to practice in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. In August 2016, she began her legal career as a Clinical Fellow at St. Mary’s University School of Law Center for Legal and Social Justice Immigration and Human Rights Clinic in San Antonio, Texas, where she focused on representing clients in immigration proceedings including appeals to the Board of Immigration Appeals and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Once her fellowship ended in August 2019, she transitioned into private immigration practice in Brownsville, Texas, where she also represented clients in removal proceedings, humanitarian visas, family-based visas, naturalization, among other forms of immigration relief. Because her heart was in public service, in March 2021, she closed her private practice and she became a Staff Attorney at RAICES – Dallas, where she mainly represented noncitizens facing removal proceedings and sought defensive and affirmative protections for her clients, like Asylum and other humanitarian protections. In April 2024, she left RAICES as a Senior Staff Attorney, and in May 2024, she became an Assistant Public Defender working at the Dallas County Public Defender’s Office. In November 2025, she was promoted to Immigration Division Supervisor where she now manages the division and Assistant Public Defender LaSarah Pillado, who also came to the Public Defender’s Office with over seven years of immigration law experience.
Certifications & Areas of Expertise
Aglae finds her work at the Public Defender’s Office so valuable since immigration law is heavily intertwined with criminal law. Noncitizens can lose their status or become ineligible to obtain status or protections from deportation for even low-level non-violent offenses regardless of the positive equities they may have like strong familial ties, medical conditions of their immediate relatives, a history of education and employment, involvement in their community and membership in religious congregations, and the absence of other criminal history in the United States. Moreover, noncitizens have a constitutional right to obtain advice regarding the immigration consequences they may face due to the crime they are accused of. With that said, the immigration division ensures that our noncitizen clients receive their constitutionally protected rights and that they have the ability to reach an informed decision regarding their criminal case to best protect their pathway to citizenship.
Values & Motivation
Aglae chose the immigration defense legal field because she is the daughter of immigrants, who left Mexico, and came to the United States with a language barrier, no financial stability, and a dream. Her family had to navigate complicated immigration systems to immigrate to and stay in the United States. In her legal career, she has represented people from all over the world with different life experiences, and she helped them navigate the same challenges her family faced. She finds this work fulfilling especially when it helps indigent noncitizens.
Aglae’s approach to leadership, advocacy, and public defense is people centered, centered around our clients and supportive of the people she manages and collaborates with. She envisions a holistic approach to legal defense to best protect our clients in various aspects of their life. She envisions a fair and just legal system, which undoubtedly can be achieved through fierce advocacy and public defense.
