Mary Townsend is a native of Pass Christian, Mississippi. She began volunteering with the immigrant community in 1998 in Central Mississippi. She established and taught English as a Second Language (ESL) classes in Morton, MS, arranged for an immigration attorney to provide low-cost immigration services at the local Catholic Center, organized parenting classes, accompanied people to the doctor, lawyer, court and other appointments as an interpreter and advocate. She also taught ESL classes at Trinity Mission Center of the United Methodist Church in Forest, MS, and at Tyson Foods in Carthage, MS, over a period of 8 years. She helped to establish the Immigration Clinic of Catholic Charities Jackson and was the immigration specialist there from 2002 to 2003. In that capacity, she was accredited to practice as an immigration paralegal by the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) of the U. S. Department of Justice. She was a founding member of MIRA! (Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance) and served as an officer and member of the Board of Directors for several years.

Ms. Townsend returned to the Gulf Coast in July, 2006 to work for Hispanic/Latino Ministries of the United Methodist Church as a long-term recovery caseworker for Spanish-speaking victims of Katrina. She helped to found El Pueblo in 2007 and continues to work there providing immigration legal services.

Iveth Diaz is currently working as a caseworker for El Pueblo. She is originally from Mexico City and it was her own immigration to the United States that compelled her to begin work with El Pueblo. She desires to pass on the support and guidance that she once received to the immigrant community of Mississippi. 

Yazmin Sanchez is originally from Chiapas Mexico. 

She took different short-term courses and studied Public Relations, she has a diploma of excellence in French and 2 more diplomas for having participated in different projects to help in the community.

Yazmin has lived in the state of Mississippi for 2 years and has experience as a patient service.

After organizing textile workers in South Carolina and Georgia he became a member of the Mississippi Bar in 1982 and the North Carolina Bar in 1987. Thereafter he worked in Legal Services in both Mississippi and North Carolina, eventually becoming Mississippi Legal Service’s statewide director of litigation, a position he held until 2012. Subsequently, he worked for the Mississippi Center for Justice for 8 years as an Education Attorney.

Among various other activities Jeremy served on the Consumer Advisory Council to the Federal Reserve Board, on the Governor’s Task Force on Child Support, as a monitor for LSC and as the author of a consumer advice column for the Sun Herald.

Jeremy retired from his position as staff attorney at El Pueblo in January, 2022, but has continued to work pro-bono on child custody/guardianship cases for immigration clients since then.

Laurie DeVecca serves as El Pueblo’s Finance and Operation Support Specialist. She helps with bookkeeping, grants reporting, and grants compliance. She has a small farm and raises goats, pigs, and poultry in her spare time. She has 6 dogs and 4 cats and lives a life of happy chaos.