Rocio Castaneda Acosta

Rocío Castañeda is a former Advocacy Attorney with the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project (Florence Project), based in Tucson, Arizona. She holds a J.D. from Loyola University Chicago School of Law and is licensed to practice law in Arizona. Rocío has worked with unaccompanied immigrant children, asylum seekers, immigrant survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking, and other immigrant populations in Arizona, Chicago, and South Texas. She has practiced before U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Executive Office for Immigration Review, Board of Immigration Appeals, Ninth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals, Federal District Court for the District of Arizona, and Maricopa County Superior Court.
She joined the Florence Project in 2014 and left in May 2025 to rest. Rocío began as a manager with the Children’s Program serving unaccompanied immigrant children in Phoenix and later became the Florence Project’s first staff attorney to serve asylum seekers across the border in Nogales, Mexico. As an Advocacy Attorney, Rocío helped grow Florence Project’s federal district court litigation challenging unlawful actions by the federal government to advocate for systemic change—she represented clients and collaborated with outside counsel on habeas petitions, egregious and unlawful delays in adjudications (Mandamus-APA), unlawful delays in request for records (Freedom of Information Act), and tort claims (Federal Tort Claims Act). She appeared in the media regularly to raise awareness about detention conditions and new policies affecting immigrants in Arizona and the U.S.-Mexico border. Rocío is from Nogales, and she enjoys cookouts, hiking with her family, and reading fantasy.