The Legal Team

About

About Us

Anna Ciesielski

Senior Attorney

Anna Ciesielski is a founding partner of Oregon Immigration Group, PC. Her law practice focuses exclusively on immigration law. She represents clients in a range of cases including, DACA, family petitions, U visas, asylum, citizenship as well as deportation defense.

Prior to joining Oregon Immigration Group, PC, Anna was the Senior Staff Attorney at Immigration Counseling Service (ICS), a non-profit immigration law firm. Anna was also the lead attorney for a collaborative project assisting children detained in federal immigration custody in the State of Oregon. Before that, Anna worked as an attorney helping refugees with immigration matters at Sponsors Organized to Assist Refugees (SOAR) in Portland, Oregon.

Anna is a regular presenter to other lawyers, students and the public in general. She has presented at regional conferences, University of Oregon Symposiums, educational classes for other immigration attorneys, the Portland Human Rights Commission as well as appearing on Univision. She also mentors new attorneys.

She is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association and speaks Spanish and English fluently. She graduated Cum Laude from the University of San Francisco School of Law where she received her Juris Doctor and Cum Laude from the University of Oregon where she received her Bachelor of Arts with honors. She is admitted to the Oregon Bar, the United States District Court for the District of Oregon and the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.


M. Renee Cummings

M. Renee Cummings

Senior Attorney

M. Renee Cummings is a founding partner of Oregon Immigration Group, PC. Her work focuses on representing families and individuals in applications to the immigration agency and litigation in immigration court.

Renee is a member of the Immigrant Crime Victim’s Sub-Committee of the Oregon Department of Justice, where she works towards creating policies at the local and state level that provide safety and support to survivors of interpersonal violence, human trafficking and other crime victims. Renee also contracts with Portland State University to provide legal consulting for students who have immigration questions or issues.

Renee attended the University of Washington School of Law. Since being admitted to the Oregon Bar in 2004, she has exclusively practiced immigration law. Before she was a partner at Oregon Immigration Group, PC, she was the senior attorney at Catholic Charities Immigration Legal Services in Portland, Oregon. She mentors new attorneys and regularly gives presentations to community groups, at regional conferences and continuing legal education seminars.

Renee is a member of the Oregon State Bar, Federal District Court Bar and the American Immigration Lawyers Association. She speaks Spanish and English fluently.

Renee enjoys hiking, gardening and reading.


Elena CaJacob

Associate Attorney

Elena joined OIG in 2022 after a decade in immigrant advocacy in Portland. She represents individuals and families in family petitions, humanitarian relief including for victims of crime, trafficking, domestic violence, and persecution abroad, and in deportation defense.
Before attending Lewis & Clark Law School, she worked as a paralegal with Immigration Counseling Service from 2012-2017 and advocated for immigrant-inclusive policies like Universal Representation and Drivers License for All, while on staff at Causa Oregon. As a student, Elena served as clerk for Oregon Law Center where she was part of a team supporting immigrants suing the Oregon Employment Department over language access failures and other problems with the state’s unemployment system during the COVID-19 pandemic. She was also a legal extern for U.S. District Court Judge Marco A. Hernandez, and provided bilingual legal services as part of Lewis & Clark’s Low Income Taxpayer Clinic. As a member of Lewis & Clark’s Immigration Student Group, Elena provided legal services to asylum seekers stuck in Tijuana, Mexico under restrictive border policies as a volunteer with Al Otro Lado.

Elena is a member of the Oregon State Bar and the American Immigration Lawyers Association. Elena is fluent in Spanish and English. She learned Spanish in University and during 4 months residing in Cajamarca, Peru.


Coral Borgardt Lemus

Coral Borgardt Lemus

Paralegal/Office Manager

Coral Borgardt Lemus is the supervising paralegal at Oregon Immigration Group, PC. She graduated from Portland State University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Spanish. Coral began working for non-profit law firm Immigration Counseling Service in 2007. She has worked for over ten years as a legal assistant and paralegal in immigration law.

Throughout her time as a paralegal, Coral has worked with detained children, individuals fleeing persecution, victims of crime, and families reunifying. Her current work focuses on removal defense and asylum.

Coral has a passion for working with the immigrant community and assisting individuals through the immigration process. She speaks Spanish and English fluently.


Jennie Fremont

Jennie Fremont

Paralegal

Jennie Fremont is a paralegal at Oregon Immigration Group, PC. She graduated from the Evergreen State College in 2001, and she earned her MFA in Spanish at Middlebury College in 2006. Jennie got her start working for Richard M. (Dick) Ginsburg in 2006. She has worked for over 12 years as a Legal Assistant and Paralegal in the area of immigration law.

Jennie has experience in a variety of immigration cases, including family-based cases, waivers of inadmissibility, and naturalization, and obtaining legal status for victims of crime and battered spouses. Jennie derives great satisfaction by seeing the real and tangible improvements that a grant of permanent residence or U.S. citizenship can make in a person’s life. She is bilingual in English and Spanish.


Yazmin Garcia

Legal Assistant

Yazmin Garcia is a legal assistant at Oregon Immigration Group, PC. She graduated from the University of California Santa Barbara with a Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology and minors in Applied Psychology and Education. Yazmin got her start with Oregon Immigration Group as an Office Assistant in 2019.

Yazmin is a native Spanish speaker.


Paulina Velazquez

Office Assistant


Daisy Franco

Office Assistant

Daisy Franco is an office assistant at Oregon Immigration Group, PC. She graduated from Portland State University and received a Bachelor’s Degree in Urban and Public Affairs and a minor in Law and Legal Studies as well as one in Spanish. Daisy plans on attending law school in hopes of becoming an immigration attorney one day.

Daisy is passionate about helping the immigrant community, as she comes from an immigrant family herself. She speaks Spanish and English fluently.