Miami-Dade County contains the largest concentration of immigrants in Florida — and arguably the most consequential immigration legal infrastructure in the southeastern United States. The Miami Immigration Court at 333 South Miami Avenue is where removal cases for the entire South Florida region are heard. The Krome Service Processing Center in southwest Miami-Dade is one of the largest immigration detention facilities in the country.
Roberta's office is in Boca Raton — about 50 minutes north of downtown Miami in light traffic, longer in real traffic. She regularly represents Miami-Dade clients, travels south for individual hearings and master calendars, and handles affirmative filings for clients in Miami, Hialeah, Coral Gables, Aventura, Doral, Kendall, and Homestead from the same office she's used for two decades. A Miami-Dade case is not a deal-breaker; it just requires planning around the drive.
Cities served in Miami-Dade County
- Miami & Downtown Miami — where the Immigration Court sits.
- Hialeah — Florida's sixth-largest city, primarily Cuban-American.
- Coral Gables — Roberta's law-school city; she earned her J.D. at the University of Miami.
- Miami Beach & Aventura — the eastern beach corridor.
- Doral & Sweetwater — Venezuelan-American hubs of business immigration and adjustment-of-status work.
- Kendall, Pinecrest, Palmetto Bay, Cutler Bay — the central-south suburban corridor.
- Homestead, Florida City, Naranja — far south Miami-Dade, agricultural communities.
- North Miami, North Miami Beach, Miami Gardens — large Haitian-American and Caribbean populations.
Where Miami-Dade cases get filed and heard
USCIS Miami Field Office at 8801 NW 7th Avenue handles affirmative filings — naturalizations, adjustments of status, asylum interviews, and biometrics for Miami-Dade County.
The Miami Immigration Court at 333 South Miami Avenue is the hearing court for non-detained removal proceedings across South Florida — including all Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade non-detained respondents. Roberta represents her clients there regularly.
The Krome Service Processing Center in southwest Miami-Dade handles detained immigration cases, with hearings conducted on-site or by video. Bond hearings, master calendars, and individual hearings for detained respondents follow a different procedural rhythm than non-detained cases — including expedited timelines and limited document access.
Practice mix Roberta sees from Miami-Dade County
Miami-Dade work skews toward the more complex end of the immigration spectrum:
- Removal defense. A meaningful share of Roberta's removal cases are Miami-Dade respondents — Caribbean and Central American clients with old criminal histories, foreign nationals who entered without inspection and are pursuing waivers, asylum-seekers in the affirmative-then-defensive pipeline.
- Asylum and CAT. Miami's consular and refugee infrastructure makes it a primary venue for asylum claims, particularly from Cuba, Venezuela, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Colombia. The one-year filing rule and the credible-fear standard are recurring conversations.
- Business-immigration work. Doral, Coral Gables, and Brickell host many Latin American business communities. L-1 intracompany transfers and the employment-based immigrant categories (EB-1, EB-2 with or without National Interest Waiver, and EB-3) come up regularly. Roberta does not handle H-1B, H-2B, E-2 treaty investor, or EB-5 investor cases — those are referred to firms that focus on those specific filings.
- VAWA and U-visa work. Miami-Dade's domestic-violence services and law-enforcement infrastructure produce more U-visa certifications than Palm Beach or Broward. Roberta handles VAWA self-petitions and U-visa filings as a core part of her practice.