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ATTORNEY ADVERTISING NOTICE. This profile was researched and written independently by Awesome Attorneys’ editorial team. It was not paid for, commissioned, or reviewed prior to publication by the firm profiled. All case outcomes, recognitions, and reviews described below are attributed to their sources. Past results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome in any future matter. This article is for general information only and is not legal advice; reading it does not create an attorney–client relationship.
Magaly Fontes: Two Decades Into an Immigration Practice She Built From a Personal Injury Start
Magaly Fontes began her career representing personal-injury and civil-rights plaintiffs before narrowing her Phoenix practice entirely to immigration law — a shift documented in nearly two decades of bar admission and community board service since.
Magaly Fontes — At a Glance
| Firm | Law Office of Magaly Fontes, PLLC, Phoenix |
|---|---|
| Focus | Immigration law exclusively since narrowing her practice, per the firm — family-based petitions, naturalization, fiancé visas, deportation and removal defense |
| Admitted | State Bar of Arizona, 2007; also admitted to the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the Executive Office for Immigration Review |
| Office | 3130 N. 3rd Ave., Phoenix, AZ 85013 |
| Community | Board member, Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce; member, American Immigration Lawyers Association, State Bar of Arizona, Maricopa County Bar Association, Los Abogados Bar Association |
| Known for | Bilingual, community-embedded practice serving Phoenix’s Spanish-speaking immigrant population since 2007 |
Sources: immigrationattorneyphoenix.net (firm website), Justia, LinkedIn, State Bar of Arizona. Compiled August 2026.
Origin
From Personal Injury to Immigration, By Choice
Magaly Fontes was born in Chihuahua, Mexico, and her family emigrated to the United States in the late 1980s. Per her firm’s Spanish-language biography, after law school she initially practiced personal injury and civil rights law for a private Phoenix firm before opening her own practice focused solely on immigration cases — a deliberate narrowing, not her original starting point. She has been admitted to the State Bar of Arizona since 2007, and also holds admission to practice before the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the Executive Office for Immigration Review, which oversees the nation’s immigration courts.
Fontes previously practiced alongside attorney Margarita Silva — also profiled on this site — as Silva & Fontes before the two attorneys established independent firms.
Practice
Family-Based Immigration and Removal Defense
Per the firm, Fontes’s practice centers on family-based immigration petitions, naturalization and citizenship, fiancé (K-1) visas, and deportation and removal defense, including bond hearings for clients detained at facilities such as Florence, Eloy, or La Palma. The firm is fully bilingual in English and Spanish.
Track Record
What’s Documented
As with most immigration practices, case outcomes — approvals, denials, relief granted — are the relevant metric rather than dollar figures, and no results table applies. What’s independently verifiable is nearly two decades of continuous Arizona bar admission and sustained community-organization membership and leadership.
Client Voice
Consistently Positive, Specific Reviews
Client reviews for Fontes describe specific positive experiences rather than generic praise. One reviewer credited her with “an instrumental role in helping me obtain my green card,” describing being kept informed by her team even when she was traveling. A Spanish-language review described the entire process, from first meeting to conclusion, as excellent, praising her staff’s professionalism and her own evident passion for the work. We found no negative reviews to weigh against these in a public search.
Community
Documented Board Service
Fontes currently serves on the board of the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, per her own recent professional posts, and is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, the State Bar of Arizona, the Maricopa County Bar Association, the Los Abogados Bar Association (an Arizona Hispanic lawyers’ association), and the American Bar Association. This is board-level community involvement, not a passive membership list.
Recognition
What’s Verifiable
No State Bar of Arizona Board of Legal Specialization certification applies to immigration law, so this profile does not use the word “specialist” to describe Fontes. Her credentials here rest on sustained bar admission since 2007, federal court and immigration-court admission, and documented board and bar-association membership rather than a peer-awards record; we found no Best Lawyers, Super Lawyers, or Martindale-Hubbell rating for her in a public search, and we’re noting that gap rather than filling it.
Arizona Legal Backdrop
Detention and Bond in Arizona Immigration Cases
Immigration detention in Arizona is concentrated at a small number of federal facilities, including Florence, Eloy, and La Palma, and a detained noncitizen’s first practical step is often requesting a bond hearing before an immigration judge under 8 U.S.C. § 1226. Someone served a Notice to Appear is entering removal proceedings before the Executive Office for Immigration Review, a federal system entirely separate from Arizona state courts. None of this is legal advice; detention and bond procedures are federal and time-sensitive, and getting the process started quickly matters.
Awesome Attorneys Assessment
Fontes’s file shows real longevity and community standing — nearly two decades of continuous practice, federal court admissions beyond the state bar minimum, and an active board seat at a well-known Arizona business organization. The honest gap: no third-party legal-peer-review credential (Best Lawyers, Super Lawyers, Martindale rating) turned up in a public search, which is a genuine limitation on how independently her professional standing can be verified beyond her own bar record and client reviews. For someone specifically looking for a bilingual, community-connected Phoenix immigration attorney with a long, stable practice history, this is a reasonable fit — but it’s worth directly asking about case outcomes in situations comparable to your own, since no aggregated peer rating exists to lean on here.
Methodology & Sourcing
Compiled from the firm’s website, Justia, LinkedIn, and the State Bar of Arizona. No claim was taken from firm marketing without a second-source check where one existed. Compiled and verified August 2026.
Publisher Disclosure & Independence Notice
Awesome Attorneys is an independent legal directory and editorial publication. This profile was not paid for, commissioned, or reviewed by the firm prior to publication, and inclusion in this directory is not an endorsement of any outcome. Firms are added or excluded based on our own editorial verification process, not advertising relationships.