Sophia Gurulé

Sophia Elena Gurulé (she/her/hers) has worked at The Bronx Defenders since 2017. As a NYIFUP staff attorney, she handles both detained and non-detained removal cases defending immigrant New Yorkers from deportation. As part of her representation, she has pursued participatory defense campaigns and trained immigration attorneys nationwide on developing these campaigns as part of their litigation strategy and broader liberation work. Sophia has also been a part of the Bronx Defenders’ Policy Team since 2019, focusing on ending ICE detention and deportations as well as providing material support to immigrant New Yorkers who are criminalized and detained by ICE.

Sophia holds a J.D. from Cardozo School of Law, where she was the recipient of the Telford Taylor Award for outstanding achievement in the fields of Constitutional Law and Human Rights. During law school, she worked in the year-long Kathryn O. Greenberg Immigration Justice Clinic and Criminal Defense Clinic. She also served as the Executive Editor of the Cardozo Journal of Law & Gender, Secretary of Cardozo’s Minority Law Students Alliance, and Community Affairs Chair of the Latin American Law Students Association. While in law school, she spent her summer internships at the Immigrant Justice Project at the Sylvia Rivera Law Project and the Southern Poverty Law Center. She also participated in the CARA Family Detention Pro Bono Project in Dilley, Texas, providing legal services to asylum-seeking women and children.

Prior to law school, Sophia graduated cum laude from Fordham University with a B.A. in International Studies and a B.A. in Latin American Studies/Latino Studies. Sophia speaks Spanish and is barred in the State of New York and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.