Law Office of Mercedes S. Cano: From Undocumented Arrival to Elmhurst’s Teacher of Immigration Defense

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Mercedes Cano arrived in New York from Colombia undocumented and speaking no English. She worked her way through Queens College to a cum laude degree, earned her J.D. at CUNY School of Law, and — before she even graduated — used a Yale public-interest grant to found a Jackson Heights nonprofit whose immigration clinic went on to serve more than 1,700 families. The Elmhurst practice she opened in 2004 is the continuation of that project by professional means: deportation defense, asylum, and criminal-immigration crossover work for the Queens communities she came from, taught now to other lawyers from a CUNY Law adjunct’s podium.

At a Glance

Firm	Law Office of Mercedes S. Cano (established 2004)
Principal Attorney	Mercedes S. Cano, Esq.
Office	40-26 82nd Street, Elmhurst, Queens, NY 11373
Focus	Immigration law with concentrations in deportation and removal defense, political asylum, representation of immigrants abused by U.S.-citizen or permanent-resident partners, and the criminal-immigration intersection — with practice before immigration courts in and beyond New York State and the Board of Immigration Appeals; a criminal-defense line runs alongside
Education	B.A. English Literature cum laude, Queens College; J.D., CUNY School of Law (1999)
Teaching	Adjunct Professor, CUNY School of Law (from 2011), consulting on immigration consequences in criminal defense following the Supreme Court’s Padilla v. Kentucky decision; CLE lecturer to private-bar and Bronx Family Court assigned-counsel attorneys; lecturer to CUNY’s 250-attorney community legal network
Community Leadership	Founder, Centro Comunitario y de Asesoría Legal, Inc. (Jackson Heights); past two-term President, Latino Lawyers Association of Queens County
Fee Structure	By consultation; Spanish-language practice

Career History

Cano’s biography is the practice’s foundation and its advertisement. An undocumented arrival from Colombia, she learned English, graduated Queens College cum laude in English literature, and took her law degree at CUNY — the city’s public-interest law school — in 1999. That same year, funded by Yale’s Initiative for Public Interest, she founded Centro Comunitario y de Asesoría Legal in Jackson Heights, building an immigration clinic that educated and assisted over 1,700 immigrant families in their rights and obligations. She opened her own practice in 2004. In 2011, after the Supreme Court’s Padilla v. Kentucky decision required criminal-defense attorneys to advise clients on immigration consequences, CUNY Law brought her on as an adjunct consultant to the defense bar — a role she has extended through CLE lectures to private practitioners and Bronx Family Court assigned counsel. She served two years as President of the Latino Lawyers Association of Queens County and continues on its rolls, and her recognitions include honors from the New York State Assembly and selection in the city’s Women’s History Month project celebrating women’s community service.

Practice Concentration

The practice concentrates on immigration’s defensive and protective core: removal and deportation defense; political asylum; representation of immigrants abused by citizen or resident partners — the VAWA-protected population; and the criminal-immigration intersection, where her post-Padilla teaching role makes her one of the borough’s recognized authorities on how criminal dispositions cascade into immigration consequences. She has represented clients in immigration courts inside and outside New York State and before the Board of Immigration Appeals. A criminal-defense line runs alongside the immigration core, which we note per our mixed-practice standard — though here the two fields are substantively integrated rather than merely adjacent.

Track Record

Her published case results include a deportation terminated with the client’s entire family subsequently documented; an asylum grant for a gay Colombian client who arrived with a deportation order already entered; and the rescue of a client whose prior representative had been practicing law in New York without a license — a case type that recurs in immigrant communities preyed on by unqualified practitioners, a problem Cano has publicly campaigned against. These are attorney-published results, attributed as such; this research did not independently verify individual outcomes. Past results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome in any future case.

Client Voice

The peer record is the striking feature here: a fellow attorney’s endorsement describes “an experienced hardworking attorney who performs extensive legal research” and then zealously advocates in court — and her repeated selection to teach other lawyers is peer endorsement in institutional form. The consumer-review base is modest in volume relative to this category’s marketing-heavy practices, consistent with a community practice built on referral and reputation. This research did not surface any public disciplinary findings.

Beyond the Courtroom

Community education is not an adjunct to this practice — it is its origin story and continuing method. Cano founded and sustains the Centro Comunitario nonprofit; she speaks at churches, hospitals, schools, and community organizations across the borough; and she has publicly warned, in CUNY Law’s own publications, against the unscrupulous practitioners and non-lawyers who exploit immigrant families’ fears — advocacy that names the industry’s problem from inside it. Her two-term presidency of the Queens Latino Lawyers association and her Assembly and Women’s History Month recognitions reflect a career whose community footprint rivals its docket.

Recognition

Sorting per our standard: the CUNY Law adjunct appointment and CLE-lecturer roles are substantive academic and peer-institutional credentials; the New York State Assembly recognition and the city Women’s History Month selection are civic honors; the Yale Initiative for Public Interest and Echoing Green affiliations reflect competitive public-interest funding; and the Latino Lawyers Association presidency is elected peer leadership. No marketing-program awards appear in this record, and none are attributed. A disclosure we apply to every New York profile: New York State does not operate a board certification program for legal specialties comparable to the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, so no New York attorney profile on this site will describe its subject as a state-certified specialist, and this profile attributes no certification to Cano.

New York Legal Backdrop

Immigration law is federal, and Elmhurst sits at its demographic heart — among the most nationality-diverse neighborhoods on earth. The doctrines this practice concentrates on carry specific architecture: since Padilla v. Kentucky (2010), the Sixth Amendment requires criminal-defense counsel to advise noncitizen clients about deportation consequences before a plea — the ruling that created the crossover discipline Cano teaches, because a plea that looks favorable in criminal court can be an automatic removal trigger in immigration court. VAWA permits abused spouses of citizens and residents to self-petition confidentially. Asylum carries a one-year filing deadline from arrival, with exceptions that experienced counsel can sometimes establish even years later. Removal proceedings are civil, with no appointed counsel; and the harm done by unlicensed practitioners — notario fraud — is severe enough that rescuing their victims is a recognized sub-practice, as this attorney’s results show. None of this is legal advice; consult a licensed immigration attorney about your situation.

Awesome Attorneys Assessment

The case for Cano is authenticity converted into authority: a practitioner who lived the undocumented experience, built a 1,700-family community institution before opening her firm, holds the borough’s recognized teaching role on criminal-immigration consequences, carries elected peer leadership and civic honors rather than purchased plaques, and practices in Spanish in the neighborhood her clients live in.

The honest trade-offs, stated plainly: this is a solo community practice, with the capacity limits that implies for corporate or high-volume work; the published results are attorney-reported rather than itemized; the consumer-review footprint is modest, with her standing running through peer and community channels instead; and the mixed criminal-immigration structure, while substantively integrated here, means purely civil-side clients share the docket with defense matters.

Methodology & Sourcing

This profile was researched and written independently by Awesome Attorneys in August 2026 without the participation, sponsorship, or payment of the Law Office of Mercedes S. Cano. Primary sources: her AILA lawyer-directory listing (the practice address and scope; the deportation, asylum, and abused-immigrant concentrations; the BIA and multi-state court practice; the nonprofit founding and 1,700-family clinic record); CUNY School of Law’s published alumni profile (the Colombia arrival and undocumented history; the Queens College and CUNY Law education; the Yale grant and Centro Comunitario founding; the Latino Lawyers presidency; her public statements on predatory practitioners). Independent verification: Avvo profile (the 2011 CUNY adjunct appointment and its Padilla context; the CLE lecture history; the published case results attributed in Track Record; the peer endorsement quoted in Client Voice); Yelp listing (the 2004 establishment; the Elmhurst address and hours); LinkedIn and Cornell LII listings (the Assembly, Echoing Green, and Women’s History Month recognitions; bar affiliations). The federal-law framework in the Legal Backdrop reflects the Immigration and Nationality Act’s public provisions and Padilla v. Kentucky, 559 U.S. 356 (2010).

Publisher Disclosure & Independence Notice

Awesome Attorneys is an independent legal-directory publisher. This profile was not paid for by the Law Office of Mercedes S. Cano, and inclusion in our editorial coverage cannot be purchased. Our methodology and editorial standards are applied consistently across all firms we cover.