Ana Vallejo

Ana Isabel Vallejo is an attorney, Co-Director, and founder of VIDA Legal Assistance, Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the rights of immigrant survivors of domestic violence, sexual violence, trafficking in persons and other violent crimes.

From 2011 to 2013 she was the Project Coordinator for the Human Trafficking Academy of the Graduate Program in Intercultural Human Rights at St. Thomas University School of Law. Prior to her joining St. Thomas University and VIDA, she supervised a team of four attorneys and three paralegals, while representing low-income immigrant women and children victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, rape, incest, and other gender-related violent crimes. 

For almost 20 years, Ms. Vallejo has dedicated her practice to representing survivors of human trafficking (modern-day slavery). She has worked tirelessly in collaboration with the US Department of Justice, Criminal Section Civil Rights Division, the US Attorney’s Office, The Federal Bureau of Investigations and the Department of Homeland Security to ensure that victims of trafficking have access to justice. Ms. Vallejo has testified before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission where she addressed forced labor in the agricultural industry in Florida. Ms. Vallejo participated as faculty in international trainings and conferences geared towards law enforcement and government officials sponsored by the Department of Justice, Criminal Division Office of Prosecutorial Development, Assistance and Training (OPDAT) in Panama, El Salvador, and Mexico. Additionally, she has presented in international conferences on the topic of access to justice for survivors of trafficking in persons in Thailand, Spain and Puerto Rico.

Prior to working with survivors of trafficking in persons, Ms. Vallejo represented hundreds of victims of human rights violations seeking protection in the United States. In the course of her duties, she appeared before the Department of Homeland Security’s Bureaus of Citizenship and Immigration Services and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (formerly the Immigration and Naturalization Service), the Executive Office for Immigration Review and the Board of Immigration Appeals. Additionally, Ms. Vallejo’s experience includes the research and writing of three amicus curiae briefs --two for the European Court of Human Rights and one for the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. She has researched and written in the area of Women’s Human Rights specifically the issues of female genital mutilation, forced prostitution and trafficking of women for commercial sexual exploitation.

She received a B.A. in Political Science and a B.A. in International Affairs from Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; a law degree from St. Thomas University School of Law, Miami, Florida; and a Master of Laws degree in Inter-Cultural Human Rights Law from St. Thomas University School of Law, Miami, Florida, where she graduated cum laude.