Victoria Sun – Pangea Legal Services

With Pangea Legal Services, Victoria will advocate for criminalized immigrants with disabilities in San Mateo County, California through legal representation, collective action, and the creation of model post-conviction relief resources.

Criminal convictions can lead to severe consequences for immigrants, such as detention and deportation. Immigrants with disabilities are at high risk of accepting a plea deal without understanding the immigration consequences. Fortunately, California law provides a vehicle to vacate such a conviction, though the major obstacle is access to representation. San Mateo County is an outlier in the Bay Area because unlike other counties, it does not have a public defender office, and there are very limited post-conviction relief services available.

This project will expand existing access to post-conviction relief in San Mateo County. Victoria will provide full-scope post-conviction relief and deportation defense services, as well as develop legal resources and provide technical assistance to attorneys seeking post-conviction relief for immigrants with disabilities in California.

Victoria is a queer Chinese American and grew up in the Bay Area. She graduated from Berkeley Law in 2022, and went to law school specifically to become a deportation defense attorney in the Bay Area. During law school, Victoria interned with Pangea, Brooklyn Defenders, Contra Costa Public Defender, and the East Bay Community Law Center. Prior to law school, Victoria worked at a private immigration firm in San Francisco.