Diana Castaneda is Associate Litigator at Wildes & Weinberg, PC. She represents clients before the Immigration Courts, and USCIS in removal defense, Stokes, adjustment interviews and naturalization. She also works with clients that have had prior arrests who are seeking immigrant and non-immigrant visas. Hence, she is heavily involved in litigating waivers.
Prior to joining Wildes & Weinberg, P.C., Diana had a close to two year stint with the renowned Massachusetts Commonwealth, Committee for Public Counsel Legal Services as a Public Defender. Prior to her work as a public defender, Diana served as the National Legal Services Director for KIND overseeing seven offices – Boston, New York, New Jersey, Washington DC, Baltimore, Houston, and Los Angeles. KIND, founded by Microsoft and Humanitarian Angelina Jolie, Diana was brought on by Microsoft’s Counsel to spearhead the newly founded NY office as a Pro Bono Coordinator working with NY’s premier law firms, and corporate law departments.
Diana has also worked for a New York City based private immigration law firm handling litigation before the immigration courts in St. Louis, Chicago, Dallas and Buffalo. Diana was formerly the Associate Director at the Archdiocese of New York, Catholic Charities Department of Immigrant and Refugee Services, where she rose from the rank of Staff Attorney, Supervising Attorney to then Associate Director..At Catholic Charities, Diana worked on a wide array of immigration cases from Cuban adjustments to refugee family reunification as a staff attorney. During the implementation of the LIFE Act, which opened the door for a limited number of immigrants to become permanent residents, Diana coordinated the department’s filings for more than 1,000 clients. As Supervising Attorney, Diana worked with pro bono counsel and law interns on cases involving domestic violence, special immigrant juveniles and removal defense.
Diana attended Hofstra University where she majored in Philosophy and Psychology, and received her JD from New York Law School. She is fluent in Spanish.
