Rebecca Walters
Whatever Your Immigration Legal Needs May Be, We Are With You
About
Rebecca Walters brings over twenty years of experience in immigration law, including distinguished service as an Assistant Chief Immigration Judge with the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR). Appointed in 2021 to oversee the Annandale Immigration Court and the Falls Church Immigration Adjudication Center, she presided over hundreds of removal proceedings while leading a team of more than thirty immigration judges, sixteen attorney advisors and law clerks, and roughly one hundred court staff. She helped train the next generation of immigration judges nationwide, expanded access to pro bono representation, and shaped EOIR policy as a member of its Pro Bono Steering Committee and Juvenile Services Subcommittee.
Before taking the bench, Rebecca spent over a decade as a trusted advocate for immigrant survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and trafficking, as well as unaccompanied children, rising from Skadden Fellow to Managing Attorney at Ayuda’s Virginia office. She has earned a reputation as a go-to authority on U and T visas, VAWA self-petitions, and Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) cases, and has led some of Northern Virginia’s most complex SIJS litigation since 2010. Her work has been recognized with an EOIR Director’s Award (2022) and the Fairfax County Domestic Violence Provider of the Year Award (2018).
A summa cum laude graduate of American University Washington College of Law, Rebecca has served as an Adjunct Professor there since 2017 and is a sought-after speaker at national conferences, including those hosted by the Federal Bar Association, AILA, and the Freedom Network.
Education
- American University Washington College of Law, J.D., summa cum laude
- University of Virginia, B.A. in Foreign Affairs
Bar Admissions
- Virginia State Bar
- U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Virginia
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
Memberships
- American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA)
- Freedom Network (Steering Committee)
- Fairfax County Domestic Violence Action Center (Advisory Team)
- Fairfax County Domestic Violence Fatality Review Team
Awards/Recognitions
- EOIR Director's Award, 2022
- Fairfax County Domestic Violence Provider of the Year Award, 2018
Languages
- Spanish
- French