Keiana James (Staff Attorney, Immigration Practice)

Keiana (she/her/hers) was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY by a blended family of New Yorkers and Jamaican immigrants. She graduated cum laude with a B.A. in Political Science, French, and International Relations from Amherst College, finishing her studies by writing a French thesis entitled “Living in the Imaginary: An Exploration of Liminality Within Cahier d’un retour au pays natal and L’Énigme du retour.” This allowed her to infuse her own experience as a first-generation American living in various communities into a literary analysis of texts at the intersections of Blackness, home, and belonging. At NYU, she brought these experiences into her work as a student advocate in the Immigrant Rights Clinic and as a Pro Bono Scholar. Keiana is thrilled to be joining the immigration practice here at BxD; she is looking forward to continuing to foster an intersectional lens of the carceral systems in the United States and supporting abolitionist movements.