Maite Garcia joined the ACLU of Florida in November of 2022 as a staff attorney focusing on immigrants’ rights. A Miami native, Maite is a longtime advocate for immigrants’ rights and began organizing during her time at Florida State University as the Political Action chair for the Latinx Student Union. She received a B.A. in Political Science and International Affairs from Florida State University and her J.D. from Florida Coastal School of Law.
Maite began her legal career at a criminal defense firm, where she handled matters ranging from misdemeanors to complex white-collar cases while taking on pro bono clemency petitions and expungements for trafficking survivors. In 2016, she joined Americans for Immigrant Justice, where her practice shifted to immigration and removal defense with a focus on humanitarian claims for immigrant children and youth. In 2018, she joined the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project in Arizona, where she expanded her practice to also serve individuals in I.C.E. detention centers in their removal and custody matters. Before joining the ACLU of Florida, she worked at Florida Legal Services, where she worked on litigation challenging solitary confinement practices in Florida.