Lucia Ornelas serves as an Associate Attorney at Lira Bravo Law, where her practice focuses on removal defense. She has extensive experience representing immigrants in removal proceedings before the Executive Office for Immigration Review and the Board of Immigration Appeals, including cases involving asylum, withholding of removal, protection under the Convention Against Torture, cancellation of removal, immigration bond, and the immigration consequences of criminal convictions.

Prior to joining Lira Bravo Law, Lucia served as a Training & Legal Support Attorney with the American Immigration Council’s Immigration Justice Campaign, where she provided national-level mentorship and technical assistance to pro bono attorneys representing detained immigrants throughout the country. She previously represented immigrants facing deportation through RAICES and the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network and has also practiced family-based immigration law.

Raised in Dallas, Texas, Lucia has dedicated much of her career to public-interest and community-based advocacy. Before becoming an attorney, she worked as a bilingual advocate for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. Her commitment to immigrant communities continued throughout law school, where she represented detained immigrants through the University of Denver’s Immigration Law and Policy Clinic.

Lucia earned her Juris Doctor from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, where she was a Chancellor Scholar and served as President of the Student Immigration Law Coalition. She earned her undergraduate degrees in Radio-Television-Film and Mexican American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. Lucia is a native Spanish speaker and is admitted to practice law in Colorado.

Outside of work, Lucia enjoys running with her Dalmatian, Diego, and spending time outdoors with her husband and daughter.