Patricia M. Corrales is an attorney at law, practicing primarily in the field of criminal defense and immigration law, with a focus on criminal immigration defense and citizenship issues. She is a leading expert in questions pertaining to U.S. citizenship — both acquisition and derivation of U.S. citizenship as well as denaturalization or the revocation of U.S. citizenship for those who have procured their citizenship illegally or by misrepresentation.

Prior to establishing her current private practice, she was an attorney for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) (1995-2012).  Ms. Corrales has an outstanding reputation that has earned her the respect of judges, prosecutors and her colleagues throughout Southern California. Her dedication to excellence combined with her extensive trial experience and extremely high ethical standards has obtained excellent results for her clients since her departure from ICE.

Ms. Corrales began her career as a Deputy District Attorney in Denver, Colorado. She then went on to join the former Immigration and Naturalization Service, and continued as a prosecutor with the creation of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). As a Senior Attorney, she was part of a team of lawyers who handled complex National Security cases. As a Senior Attorney with ICE, she worked closely with special agents from ICE, the FBI, and other law enforcement agencies, as well as various US Attorneys’ Offices nationwide; she is recognized for providing quality legal analysis on criminal denaturalization cases. Her experience includes significant motions practice, settlement negotiations and drafting of settlement agreements and related documentation.

She has received training in Privacy laws, and was the point of contact in the Los Angeles Chief Counsel’s Office on issues pertaining to the Privacy Act. She has had favorable decisions published in several cases — including DeLara Bellajaro v. Schiltgen, INS, 378 F.3d 1042 (9th Cir. 2004); U.S. v. Dang, 488 F.3d 1135 (9th Cir. 2007); U.S. v. Aiman Nasser Mohalla, 545 F.Supp.2d 1035 (C.D. Cal. 2008); U.S. v. Wang, 404 F.Supp.2d 1155) (N.D. Cal. 2005). Most recently, Ms. Corrales consulted on an immigration documentary airing on Netflix called “Living Undocumented.”  Ms. Corrales was the immigration attorney featured on the documentary providing legal commentary on the eight courageous families who shared their immigration history.

Ms. Corrales was awarded a Certificate of Appreciation and Recognition from the Federal Bureau of Investigation for successful prosecution in the case of U.S. v. Mousavi. She received a Certification of Appreciation from the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department for successful prosecution in a cybercrime case. The Office of the Principal Legal Advisor presented Ms. Corrales with a Special Achievement Award for contributions made to the ICE in successfully achieving significant mission goals, and a Special Achievement Award for her successful litigation in the case of U.S. v. Ahmadazi. Since entering private practice, Ms. Corrales has testified as an expert in immigration law in several Federal and State cases including Duncan Roy et. Al v. Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, People v. Abel Bexeril.  Additionally, Ms. Corrales produces and hosts a legal program called “Justice Matters” which primarily deals with immigration issues.