Aaron is a nationally recognized immigration and civil-rights attorney who built his practice at the intersection the legal system pretends doesn't exist — where a criminal record, an immigration file, and a constitutional violation are one client's single story. That approach has produced some of Colorado's most-watched outcomes: Rene Lima-Marin's release after a deportation defense built on a governor's pardon, the federal lawsuit challenging ICE's pursuit of TIME-100 sanctuary leader Jeanette Vizguerra, Governor Polis's first act of executive clemency, and the reversal of the citizenship denial that brought the cannabis-immigration conflict to Congress's attention.
Bryce Downer and I founded Novo Legal Group on the conviction that immigration and civil-rights work belong in the same firm — because the families we represent live at the intersection of both. Novo is a Spanish-first practice: every attorney and staff member is bilingual, and Spanish is a first language of this firm, not a translation.
The intersection is a strategy, not a slogan. For Rene Lima-Marin, it meant building a removal defense on top of a governor's pardon — winning termination in immigration court, defending that win at the Board of Immigration Appeals, then holding the private contractor operating his ICE detention facility accountable in federal court. For Ingrid Encalada de la Torre, it meant finding the procedural rule that had blocked her pardon application and refiling at the right moment — Governor Polis granted her pardon as his first act of executive clemency. For Jeanette Vizguerra, it meant taking ICE itself to federal court. For Oswaldo Barrientos, it meant making USCIS answer for denying citizenship to a man whose only "violation" was a legal job.
A Super Lawyers Rising Star, I have briefed and argued immigration appeals in the federal courts of appeals, and I remain the attorney of record on the cases where this firm fights hardest. If you are looking for an attorney who reads a case the whole way through — the criminal piece, the immigration piece, the civil-rights piece — this is the door to come through.
Removal defense · Cannabis-immigration · Naturalization · Family-based
Police misconduct · Excessive force · Wrongful arrest · Constitutional violations
Felony defense · Federal cases · Cases with immigration consequences
Past results don't predict future ones. Every case is its own facts. These are here so you have a sense of the work.
Represented Rene Lima-Marin after ICE detained him despite a governor's pardon. Won termination in Denver Immigration Court, defended the win at the Board of Immigration Appeals; Rene came home. Federal civil-rights claims against the private contractor operating the detention facility resolved by confidential settlement.
Identified the procedural bar blocking Ingrid Encalada de la Torre's pardon re-application and refiled under Governor Polis's new clemency policy. Pardon granted December 2019 — the governor's first act of executive clemency.
Filed suit in the U.S. District Court for Colorado challenging ICE's yearslong campaign to deport Jeanette Vizguerra, named one of TIME's 100 Most Influential People, on due-process and administrative-law grounds.
Represented Oswaldo Barrientos after USCIS denied his citizenship over legal cannabis employment. National media coverage; case helped drive Gardner-Warren legislation.