About Carolina Martin
Carolina Martin Ramos earned her law degree from the University of New Mexico in 2009 after a circuit of studies that included the University of Guanajuato and earlier work in education and the arts. Her academic path ranges from a fine arts program in Guangzhou in the 1980s to ethnic studies at San Francisco State University in the early 1990s, and later credentialing in education at California State University campuses. She also pursued graduate work in educational psychology at CSU Long Beach. The variety of her studies preceded a shift into law that culminated in a J.D. and entry into public defense and immigration practice.
Ramos began her legal career in New Mexico public defense. She served as an assistant public defender in Santa Fe and later handled serious violent felonies for the New Mexico Law Office of the Public Defender. Those years in criminal court informed her view of how immigration consequences intersect with criminal cases. In 2012 she moved into roles that bridged criminal defense and immigration advocacy, including a position as immigration counsel with the New Mexico Public Defender Department and the formation of her own practice entity, Justicia Digna, LLC. By 2015 she was operating the Immigration Law Office of Carolina Martin Ramos, continuing to advise clients on immigration matters alongside defense work.
Her professional affiliations reflect sustained involvement in both immigration and criminal law communities. She has been a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association since 2010 and participates in state bar sections relevant to her work. She chaired the Immigration Section of the New Mexico State Bar Association beginning in 2015 and has served on the boards of the Indian Law Section and the New Mexico Hispanic Bar Association. She is also a member of the New Mexico Criminal Defense Lawyers Association.
Ramos is licensed to practice federal immigration law across all 50 states and is authorized to practice in New Mexico. That authorization underpins a practice that sits where immigration law and criminal law meet: removal defense, relief applications, and counseling on collateral immigration consequences of criminal charges. Her courtroom experience in felony cases remains part of her toolkit when addressing complex immigration issues triggered by criminal matters.
She maintains offices that include a Vista, California location and operations under Justicia Digna, LLC. She currently handles immigration and criminal-immigration matters from her offices in California and New Mexico, working with individuals facing removal, seeking relief, or confronting immigration consequences of criminal charges.
