Julie Sparks

Julie Sparks is one of the few immigration attorneys who are Board Certified by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization in Immigration and Nationality Law. This certification is reserved for those with a number of years of experience across all areas of immigration law who have also taken and passed an exam in especially complex legal issues. Today, she focuses her work on immigrant families, survivors of crime and domestic violence, those seeking citizenship, Dreamers, those facing deportation, and refugees seeking asylum. She has appeared before various USCIS field offices and immigration courts throughout the U.S., in a variety of circuits, and she has represented immigrants before numerous consulates around the world.

Years ago, a passion for human rights led Julie to give up a teaching career and pursue a law degree. The seed of this passion was planted when Julie met a Rwandan refugee in 1996 through her work in a homeless shelter in Waco, Texas. The homeless woman she helped then ended up changing the trajectory of Julie’s future career path. Julie came to realize that only a grant of asylum would prevent this woman from being deported to a place where genocide had taken most of her immediate family from her.

Although she is a native Texan, Julie spent the first many years of her career in Southern California. There, in addition to practicing immigration law through her private law office, she became an immigration law instructor at the Pepperdine School of Law in Malibu, California as well as at California State University – Los Angeles. While in Los Angeles, she also founded and managed a non-profit organization through which she supervised numerous law students in their representation of indigent immigrants seeking asylum and other legal status in removal proceedings. As a former teacher, Julie greatly enjoyed utilizing her teaching abilities in combination with her expertise in immigration law.

Julie has served as a volunteer attorney for many community organizations at dozens of community events over the years. And, prior to the creation of the DACA program, she served as a legal advisor to “Dreamers” in their quest to pressure the Obama administration to provide relief to undocumented persons who were brought to the U.S. as children. It was an amazing experience to see the unwavering passion of these young activists change the lives of so many other Dreamers. Julie also volunteered for several years for AILA and for NALEO, the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, as a pro bono attorney liaison. Outside of work, she has donated her own time and resources to assist various refugees from Africa in acclimating to life in the U.S.

In 1997, Julie earned a Bachelor of Science in Education degree from Baylor University, with majors in science and history and a minor in world religions. Following a few years in the fields of science and world cultures education, she earned a Doctor of Jurisprudence law degree from the University of Houston Law Center where she studied under the late, great Joseph A. Vail in the immigration clinical program. She was a recipient of the University of Houston Law Center’s Public Interest Fellowship. Later, as an attorney, she received the 2010 Beacon of Justice Award from the National Legal Aid and Defender Association and was also featured by AILA for her pro bono work. At present, she is a member of the Texas Bar Association and the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA). Through AILA and personal study, she remains a student of immigration law, constantly stiving to learn more and hone her advocacy skills.