Rebecca Sheff is a senior staff attorney at the ACLU of New Mexico, specializing in immigrants' rights. Prior to joining the ACLU, Rebecca spent three years in El Paso as a staff attorney with Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, with a focus on immigration, border rights, and civil rights matters. Rebecca worked previously for Human Rights First in their Washington, DC, office on foreign policy matters including refugee protection, rule of law issues, and threats to civic space. She was then selected for a fellowship with Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, where she advocated and litigated in international forums on behalf of human rights defenders targeted for their work. She clerked for the Honorable Roy W. McLeese III at the D.C. Court of Appeals. Rebecca received a B.A. in Political Science at Macalester College and earned her J.D. at New York University School of Law.
Prior to her career as an attorney, Rebecca worked in Zimbabwe for a civil society organization combating election-related violence and providing services for survivors of torture and police brutality. Rebecca also worked for a human rights organization in Burundi, where she managed the launch of the first LGBTQ+ community center in the region and facilitated access to direct services, capacity-building, and advocacy initiatives to decriminalize same-sex relationships. Rebecca is passionate about access to justice, accountability, and organizing with folks who are most directly affected by state violence and abuses of power.
