Maria I Akalski

Judge profile

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Maria I. Akalski was appointed as an Immigration Judge to begin hearing cases in December 2022. Judge Akalski earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1999 from Harvard University and a Juris Doctor in 2002 from New York University School of Law. From 2018 to 2022, she served as an assistant chief counsel, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in New York. From 2015 to 2018, she was an attorney in New York, working for Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen and Loewy from 2017 to 2018, and as an associate counsel for immigration at WME-IMG from 2015 to 2016. From 2007 to 2015, she served in several roles with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, DHS: immigration services officer (2007- 2008); supervisory immigration services officer (2008-2011); section chief (2012-2014); and deputy field office director (2014-2015) in New York; and as a section chief (2011-2012) in Newark, New Jersey. From 2005 to 2007, she was an immigration attorney at Stephen Jeffries & Associates in New York. From 2002 to 2004, she was an associate at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft in New York. Judge Akalski is a member of the New York State Bar.