Kyle Dandelet is Pro Bono Counsel, working with a dedicated team of attorneys and professional staff to develop and manage the firm’s award-winning pro bono immigration practice.

He provides pro bono representation in immigration and federal litigation matters, helping noncitizens pursue removal defense, release from custody, affirmative immigration relief, and other remedies.

Kyle served as an immigration judge at the Federal Plaza Immigration Court in Manhattan from 2022 to 2026. During this time, he presided over complex removal hearings, ruled on motions, and made determinations concerning, among other things, competence, credibility, the admission of evidence, and noncitizens’ removability and eligibility for asylum, cancellation of removal, adjustment of status, and other forms of immigration relief.

Prior to his appointment as an immigration judge, Kyle was the firm’s Pro Bono Immigration Attorney from 2017 to 2022. In this capacity, he collaborated with nonprofit partner organizations to develop largescale projects for the delivery of immigration legal services, mentored attorneys engaged in pro bono immigration representation, and maintained an active docket of immigration and federal litigation matters. Earlier in his career, Kyle worked as a Senior Staff Attorney in Sanctuary for Families’ Immigration Intervention Project, as a litigation associate at the firm, and as a law clerk in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Kyle is a member of the Roundtable of Former Immigration Judges and the Katzmann Study Group on Immigrant Representation. He has held leadership positions in the American Immigration Lawyers Association and has served as an adjunct professor at Fordham University School of Law.

Kyle rejoined the firm in 2026.

 

 

Read More

Selected Activities

trigger
  • Member, Roundtable of Former Immigration Judges, 2026-Present
  • Member, Katzmann Study Group on Immigrant Representation, 2026-Present
  • Member, American Immigration Lawyers Association, 2015-2022
  • Chair, American Immigration Lawyers Association VAWA, U and T Committee, 2020-2022
  • Member, Association of Pro Bono Counsel, 2017-2022
  • Steering Committee Member, Immigrant ARC, 2020-2022
  • Member, New York City Bar Association’s Immigration & Nationality Law Committee, 2020-2022

Publications

“FAQs on DHS’s Withdrawal of the NTA Policy and How It Affects U and T Visa Applicants and VAWA Self-Petitioners” (2021), AILA Practice Pointer

“Insight into USCIS’s Application of the ‘No-Blanks’ Policy to U-Visa Petitions,” AILA Practice Advisory (2020), co-authors Cecelia Friedman Levin and Joy Ziegeweid.

“USCIS Rejection of U Visa Petitions Due to Alleged Incompleteness Extended to Form I-918, Supplement B Certificatoins,” AILA Practice Pointer (2020), co-authors Kursten Phelps and Cynthia Lucas

“T Visa Adjustment of Status and the Public Charge Ground of Inadmissibility,” AILA Practice Pointer (2019), co-authors Morgan Weibel and Carolyn Kim

“Dollars and Sense: Fee Shifting,” 39 W. New Eng. L. Rev. 283 (2017), co-authors Gerry Singsen, Joel Feldman and Michael A. O’Connor.

Events