AILA Elects New Officers

CONTACTS:
George Tzamaras 202-507-7649 gtzamaras@aila.org	Belle Woods 202-507-7675 bwoods@aila.org

 

Denver, CO – Today, the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) elected new officers to its Executive Committee for the 2025-2026 term. Jeff Joseph was installed as AILA’s President and the following officers were elected today: Alexis S. Axelrad as President-Elect, Jacqueline Watson as First Vice President, Rekha Sharma-Crawford as Second Vice President, Michelle L. Saenz-Rodriguez as Treasurer, and David Wilks as Secretary.

Jeff Joseph Installed as President of AILA

 AILA installed Denver attorney, Jeff Joseph, as the association’s 79^th President for the 2025-2026 term. Mr. Joseph was installed as part of the AILA Annual Conference held in Denver, CO.

Jeff Joseph is a Partner with Berry Appleman and Leiden (BAL) where he works with the government strategies team managing federal litigation cases on behalf of companies, associations and individuals.  He has more than two decades of experience advising clients in a wide variety of industries on immigration law and policy. A skilled advocate, Mr. Joseph has represented clients before the Department of Homeland Security, the Executive Office for Immigration Review, the Board of Immigration Appeals, the U.S. District Courts, and the Circuit Courts of Appeals. In recent months, he has fielded dozens of press inquiries about immigration topics with a particular emphasis on student visa processes and litigation.

Well-known throughout the immigration legal community, Mr. Joseph is a past Chapter Chair of the Colorado Chapter of AILA and a past elected director on the AILA National Board of Governors. He was on the Board of Trustees of the American Immigration Council from 2006-2012 and served as Chair of the Litigation Action Committee. In 2004, he received the Joseph Minsky Young Lawyer Award from AILA. He also served as Vice Chair of the Immigration Law Section of the Federal Bar Association and President of the Colorado Chapter of the FBA.

Mr. Joseph enjoys teaching others about immigration law, explaining complex concepts with ease. As a thought leader in the field, he has given more than 200 lectures to professional organizations on wide-ranging aspects of immigration law. He also teaches and mentors the next generation of immigration attorneys, having served as an adjunct professor of immigration law at the University of Denver College of Law. He is bilingual in English and Spanish.

He is active on Twitter/X; his handle is @jeffjoseph. On LinkedIn, he can be followed as well.

Alexis S. Axelrad Named President-Elect of AILA

AILA has elected Alexis S. Axelrad, an immigration lawyer whose practice is based in New York, NY, as the association’s President-Elect for the 2025-2026 term.

Ms. Axelrad is a partner with Barst & Mukamal LLP, where she maintains a busy corporate and family-based immigration practice with a particular emphasis on interaction with the various offices of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Justice Department, including U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Department of State, and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

Born in New York City, Alexis has almost three decades of experience in immigration and nationality law. Ms. Axelrad previously served as an elected director of AILA's Board of Governors and as the Chair of AILA’s CBP Committee. She is a past Chair of the New York Chapter of AILA. Ms. Axelrad is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Executives Association of New York and serves on the Membership Committee of the organization.

She is the recipient of the distinguished 2020 AILA Susan Quarles Service Award and a past recipient of AILA President's Commendation Award for Outstanding Service on the USCIS HQ liaison committee, June 2008-2010 & 2014, CBP HQ Committee 2019 & 2021.

Ms. Axelrad was the author of a quarterly column on immigration matters published in the New York Law Journal and the researcher and writer of US Immigration Laws: Working, Living and Studying in America (1999). She is a frequent writer for periodicals and speaker on immigration and nationality law and is honored to be a source of information and guidance for her colleagues in and outside of the immigration bar and for the NYC Society of Human Resources Management (SHRM) community.

Ms. Axelrad received her B.A. from the University of Maryland at College Park (1994) After earning her J.D. from New York Law School (1997), Ms. Axelrad was admitted to practice in New York in 1998.

Jacqueline Watson Elected First Vice President of AILA

AILA elected Jacqueline Watson, an immigration attorney whose practice is based in Austin, TX, as the association’s First Vice President for the 2025-2026 term.

Jacqueline Watson is a proud El Paso native and undergraduate alum of the University of Texas at El Paso, where she studied political science and Russian. She earned her J.D. at the University of Texas School of Law. Certified in Immigration and Nationality Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, she has practiced immigration law in Austin since 1999 and is a partner at JLW Immigration Law Group.

Ms. Watson’s expertise includes citizenship and naturalization, family-based immigration, defense from removal, asylum, federal court litigation, and other complex immigration matters. A member of the Texas Bar, she is licensed in the Western District of Texas and in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

She is a frequent presenter at state and national immigration law conferences. She has been quoted in publications such as the Austin American Statesman, The Texas Tribune, the New York Times, and the Associated Press, and has appeared on Univision, Spectrum News, Good Day LA, Austin Public Radio’s KUT, and NPR’s This American Life. In 2009, 2010, and 2011 she was selected for inclusion in the Immigration Law section of the Rising Stars list published in Texas Super Lawyers magazine, and as a Texas Super Lawyer in 2023 and 2024.

Ms. Watson volunteers her time with organizations such as American Gateways, the City of Austin Urban Renewal Board, the State Bar of Texas, and the University of Texas School of Law, who awarded her the 2020 W. Page Keeton Award for Excellence in Continuing Legal Education. Ms. Watson is an adjunct professor in the Paralegal Program at Austin Community College and is a former AILA Texas Chapter Chair and Elected Director of the AILA National Board of Directors.

Rekha Sharma-Crawford Named Second Vice President of AILA

AILA elected Rekha Sharma-Crawford, an immigration attorney whose practice is based in Kansas City, MO, as the association’s first South Asian American Second Vice President for the 2025 - 2026 term.

Rekha Sharma-Crawford is an immigration attorney and partner in the Kansas City law firm Sharma-Crawford Attorneys-at-Law. A nationally recognized expert in immigration law, she focuses her practice on removal defense issues, trial advocacy and federal litigation.

In 2024, Ms. Sharma-Crawford was awarded the Professional Leader of the Year by the Kansas City Asian Chamber of Commerce. In 2023, she was a member of the AILA Amicus Committee when the committee was awarded AILA’s Jack Wasserman Memorial Award. In 2021, she received the AILA Edith Lowenstein Memorial Award, for excellence in advancing the practice of immigration law. In 2018, the Kansas Bar Association honored Ms. Sharma-Crawford with the Courageous Attorney Award, “an award presented from time to time, to attorneys who have displayed exceptional courage in the face of adversity, thus bringing credit to the legal profession.” In 2017, The Missouri Bar Association honored Ms. Sharma-Crawford and her law partner with its Pro Bono Publico Award.

Along with having several critical published court decisions, Ms. Sharma-Crawford is also an author and speaker on issues involving immigration law and policy. She had served as an Elected Director for the AILA Board of Governors for several years, andwhen in 2023 she became the first South Asian American Secretary of AILA.

In 2012, she co-founded a nonprofit law clinic to provide representation for indigent individuals facing removal in the Kansas City Immigration Court. After 13 years, in January 2025, the Clinic at Sharma-Crawford Attorneys at Law was rebranded to The Pen & Sword, changing its focus from direct representation services to providing creative and innovative programing designed to educate lawyers and communities about immigration law. It remains the home of the nation's first trial advocacy college for immigration removal defense practitioners; the Immigration Court Trial Advocacy College™ was first started in 2017 and has an all-star faculty of litigators, former immigration judges and former Board of Immigration Appeals members.

Ms. Sharma-Crawford is also the author of her children’s books, Aaliyah the Brave, Empowering Children Coping with Immigration Enforcement, released in 2022, Finding Freedom, Empowering Young Survivors of Human Trafficking, released in 2023 and her new book Reat and the Ripple: How One Act of Kindness Changed Everything, released in 2025. The net profits of her first two books are divided between The Pen & Sword and the National Immigration Litigation Alliance. All of the profits of her third book are donated to SevenDays®, a nonprofit devoted to overcoming hate by creating ripples of kindness.

Michelle L. Saenz-Rodriguez Named Treasurer of AILA

AILA elected Michelle L. Saenz-Rodriguez, an immigration attorney whose practice is based in Dallas, TX, as the association’s Treasurer for the 2025-2026 term.

Michelle L. Saenz-Rodriguez is the co-founder and senior partner at Saenz-Rodriguez & Associates in Dallas, Texas. She started as a Judicial Law Clerk under the Attorney General’s Honor Program for 7 Immigration Judges in Harlingen, Texas. She began her immigration practice shortly thereafter and has remained a passionate advocate for immigrants from around the world.

Ms. Saenz-Rodrigez has served in numerous volunteer capacities with AILA, including as former Chair for the Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico Chapter. She served as an elected director on AILA’s Board of Governors for two terms and has served on various National Committees over her 30 years as an AILA Member. She is also member of IMMLAW, a distinguished consortium of highly experienced immigration attorneys strategically located in major cities across the United States.

After more than 3 decades in the immigration law field, she is active in her local community where she serves as a volunteer for pro bono lawyers who are representing unaccompanied minors and mothers with young children who are fleeing Central America due to the uncontrollable violence that continues to plague the area.

Her firm has been named one of the “Top Tier Immigration Law Firms in America” for the last several years and she herself has been rated as a “Top Lawyer in the Field of Immigration” by Best Lawyers in America.

David Wilks Elected Secretary of AILA

AILA elected David Wilks, an immigration attorney based in Rochester, NY, as the association’s Secretary for the 2025-2026 term.

David Wilks co-leads the Immigration Practice Group at Hodgson Russ; he guides companies, nonprofit organizations, universities and entrepreneurs in preparing and submitting non-immigrant and immigrant petitions. He has extensive experience with cross-border transfers into the U.S., including along the Canadian border. He has assisted foreign medical graduates in obtaining waivers and lawful status, as well as individuals in obtaining marriage-based permanent residence and U.S. citizenship.

Mr. Wilks previously served as an Elected Director for the AILA Board of Governors and regularly served on national committees for AILA. He is often a featured speaker at immigration conferences and has appeared on webinars, podcasts and radio shows. He has also written various articles on assorted topics in immigration law. These articles have appeared in Benders’ Immigration Bulletin, ILW.com, the National Law Review and in various publications of AILA.

His various accolades include Best Lawyers in America (Immigration Law) 2023 – 2025, Who's Who Legal Future Leaders, (Corporate Immigration) 2022, the AILA Joseph Minsky Young Lawyer Award (2019), and the Mark T. Kenmore, Mentor of the Year Award, AILA Upstate New York Chapter (2018).

Mr. Wilks graduated from Brigham Young University, with a B.A., cum laude, and holds a J.D. from Cornell Law School. He is admitted to practice in New York, and as a foreign legal consultant in Ontario, Canada. He and his wife Laura live in Upstate New York with their four daughters.