Our Team
Rev. Paul Fleck
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Rev. Paul Fleck, Executive Director, is an ordained Elder in The New York Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church and a former litigation attorney.
Prior to coming to Immigration Law & Justice New York, Rev. Fleck served as Pastor of New Milford United Methodist and Hamden Plains United Methodist Churches in Connecticut. While at Hamden Plains UMC, Rev. Fleck helped co-found New Sanctuary CT, a coalition of eleven faith communities throughout Connecticut committed to providing physical sanctuary to immigrants facing deportation.
Rev. Fleck has his Master’s of Divinity from Yale Divinity School and J.D. from The University of Texas School of Law.
TJ Mills
MANAGING ATTORNEY
Our Managing Attorney, TJ Mills, has over 20 years of experience in the field of immigration law. Before coming to Immigration Law & Justice New York, TJ worked for 7 years as an Asylum Officer for the Department of Justice in Los Angeles and New York. Since 1999, TJ has represented our clients before the courts, the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), consular offices, and the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) with ILJNY. He has Federal Circuit, District Court, and agency appellate experience, including representation of an asylum seeker in precedent-setting 9th Circuit decision and representation of a US citizen in a precedent-setting BIA ruling.
Samantha Blecher
SENIOR STAFF ATTORNEY
Samantha Blecher has been a Staff Attorney with ILJNY since February 2018, and was promoted to Senior Staff Attorney in February 2022. Since her time at ILJNY she has represented numerous clients in a wide variety of Immigration matters including Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS), Asylum, Naturalization, DACA Renewal, U-Visas, VAWA (Violence Against Women’s Act), Green Card Renewals, Family Based Petitions, and Removal Defense. Before coming to ILJNY, Samantha worked at a small firm in Long Island that handled mostly Asylum and Special Immigrant Juvenile Status cases. Samantha graduated Cum Laude from the Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University with both distinction and a concentration in Family Law. Samantha’s interest in Immigration Law started even before she was formally admitted to the State of New York to practice law. Throughout law school, Samantha represented clients in three different Immigration clinics (one helping clients through the naturalization process, one where she represented clients as they applied for asylum both affirmatively and defensively and one where she represented clients who were applying for special immigrant juvenile status).
Nneka Okpara
Nneka Okpara
ASYLUM ATTORNEY
Nneka Okpara is the Asylum Attorney at Immigration Law & Justice New York, bringing with her an experienced background in immigration law. Previous to her position at ILJNY, Nneka worked as an Immigration Staff Attorney at the Urban Justice Center’s Youth Project and the Sex Worker’s Project, representing clients affirmatively and defensively in varying immigration matters such as Asylum, SIJS, T & U Visas, Naturalization, Adjustment of Status, amongst others. She has also worked in Los Angeles as a Law Clerk for Immigrant Defenders Law Center representing unaccompanied minors and interned in Popayan, Colombia for an NGO committed to raising awareness and stopping the practice of human and labor trafficking. Nneka is the Visiting Senior Fellow at Immigration ARC (I-ARC) for the Black Immigrant’s Initiative Program. Nneka is committed to providing legal representation to those who need it the most and cannot afford it on their own. Nneka received her J.D. from Maurice A. Deane School of Law in 2017.
Kevyn McConlogue
STAFF ATTORNEY
Kevyn McConlogue is a Staff Attorney at Immigration Law & Justice New York, with a focus on minor representation in both family court and immigration proceedings. She is committed to representing individuals and families navigating the immigration system with a focus on trauma-informed, client-centered advocacy.
She previously served in the Peace Corps as a Youth Development Specialist in Morocco, where she worked on education and youth empowerment initiatives. This experience strengthened her commitment to public service and deepened her understanding of cross-cultural advocacy and global inequality.
She earned her J.D. from Brooklyn Law School, where she concentrated her studies in immigration and international law. During law school, she participated in an immigration-focused clinic and asylum-related advocacy work, gaining hands-on experience representing clients in complex humanitarian cases. She also helped secure asylum relief for a client in immigration court, an experience that solidified her commitment to removal defense and asylum litigation. In addition, she served as Pro Bono Chair of the Brooklyn Law Immigration Society and Co-Chair of the Asylum Relief Project, coordinating and supporting legal services for individuals seeking protection in the United States.
She holds a B.A. in International Relations from Lehigh University, with minors in Religion and Global Studies. Across her academic and professional experiences, she has consistently focused on immigrant justice, human rights, and expanding access to legal representation for vulnerable populations.
Her work is grounded in a commitment to ensuring that individuals facing removal proceedings receive thoughtful, thorough, and zealous advocacy.
Emily Yi
Emily Yi
PARALEGAL
Emily Yi is a paralegal with Immigration Law & Justice New York. Prior to joining the team full time as a paralegal, she worked with ILJNY as a Legal Assistant and Communications & Fund Development Coordinator. She served as co-director of Columbia Students for Sanctuary (SFS) and was the lead coordinator of SFS’s pro se clinic at Afrikana, in partnership with ILJNY and Fordham Law School’s Feerick Center for Social Justice. Previously, she interned with the Ark Immigration Clinic at Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, the New York Legal Assistance Group’s Domestic Violence Law Unit, and the EMILYs List campaigns research team. Emily works with clients in Mandarin Chinese and Spanish. She graduated with a B.A. in Anthropology (summa cum laude) from Columbia University, where she received departmental honors for a senior thesis on pro se asylum clinics in New York City.
Charlie Rotunno
DOJ FULLY ACCREDITED REPRESENTATIVE
Charlie began his service as a DOJ Fully-Accredited Representative first at JFON-DV (Delaware Valley) in 2023. In January 2025, he joined ILJ-NY, and works part-time in removal defense representing LGB and TI+ clients seeking asylum in the U.S. Charlie received his education and training as a Representative at Villanova University, through its Villanova Interdisciplinary Immigration Studies Training for Advocates (VIISTA) program, completing all requirements for full accreditation in April 2022.
Board of Directors
Ms. Kate Boyd, Board Chair (Sente Partners, Brooklyn, NY)
Mr. Jean Montalvan, Vice Chair (Long Island City, NY)
Mr. Jason Fachler, Treasurer (J.P. Morgan Chase, New York, NY)
Mr. Wayne Moy, Secretary (United Women in Faith, NY)
Ms. Gail Douglas-Boykin (NY Annual Conference of the UMC, NY)
The Rev. Claire Wu (Farmingdale UMC, Farmingdale, NY)
The Rev. Dr. Hugh Hamilton (UMC, the Bronx, NY)
The Rev. Ximena Varas (NY Annual Conference of the UMC, NY)
Ms. Donna Akuamoah (J.P. Morgan Chase, New York, NY)
The Rev. Chongho Kim (First UMC in Flushing, NY)
Volunteer Attorneys
S. Yan Sin
Jonah Spivak
Clinic Coordinators
Manhattan: Sue Lee & Amanda Lin
Brooklyn: Diane Larrier
Queens: Dr. Hong Kyu Choi & Heesun Choi
Long Island: Joan Hamilton
Thank you!
This vital work with immigrants is not possible without the support of donors, volunteers, churches, and communities that believe in immigrant rights.
Proudly supported by The New York Annual Conference and The United Methodist Church, The United Methodist City Society, and The New York State Interest on Lawyer Account Fund.
