Marc Anthony Santamaria

Marc Anthony Santamaria (born March 5, 1982) is an American immigration attorney, ESL instructor, and legal educator based in San Francisco, California. He is the founder of Santamaria Law Firm, P.C. and serves as Director and Staff Attorney of the Habeas Institute at the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco. Since 2022, he has been a lecturer in law at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, where his listed areas of expertise include immigration, business law, and law and technology. His work spans complex federal immigration litigation, adjustment of status, business and investor visas, humanitarian relief, and the use of artificial intelligence in legal education.

Early Life and Education

Santamaria earned a Bachelor of Arts in legal studies from the University of California, Berkeley in 2004. He obtained his Juris Doctor from San Francisco Law School (now Alliant International University) in 2011.

He continued postgraduate studies at the University of San Francisco, earning a Master of Arts in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) in 2014. As a capstone for that program, he authored The “What E.L.S.E.” Resource Guide for E.S.L. Students (2014), a field research project addressing resource gaps encountered by adult immigrants and multilingual learners in language learning environments.

Santamaria also earned a Master of Laws (LL.M.) in taxation from the University of San Francisco School of Law in 2015. He received the Outstanding LL.M. Student Award from Golden Gate University in 2013 and was subsequently featured by USF Law in a profile on tax law degrees applied to immigration practice.

In 2016, he completed a Doctor of Juridical Science (S.J.D.) in international legal studies at Golden Gate University School of Law. His dissertation, Why Immigrants Benefit the United States Economy and the Legal and Tax Issues Chinese, Filipinos and Vietnamese Face When Immigrating to the U.S., examined the economic contributions of immigrant communities and the cross-border regulatory challenges they face.

Santamaria was admitted to the State Bar of California in 2012 (Bar No. 284643).

Santamaria is admitted to practice before the U.S. District Courts for the Northern and Eastern Districts of California, where he has developed a federal court immigration litigation practice. UC Law SF established the Habeas Institute to litigate pro bono immigration habeas cases in federal district court, primarily in the Northern District of California. Santamaria was appointed its inaugural director and staff attorney.[11] In this role, he files petitions for writs of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 and emergency temporary restraining orders challenging prolonged administrative detention, supervises students in the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic, mentors pro bono practitioners, hosts habeas-focused conferences, and engages in fundraising to support the institute's operations.

UC Berkeley School of Law

Since 2022, Santamaria has served as a lecturer in law at UC Berkeley School of Law. Berkeley Law lists his areas of expertise as immigration, business law, and law and technology. He teaches LL.M. Legal Research and Writing in the LL.M. program, focusing on primary-source research methods including policy guidance, federal regulations, and case law to write legal memorandums.

He also taught COLWRIT 9N: Introduction to the U.S. Legal System for Multilingual Students during the summer session through Berkeley's College Writing Programs, a three-unit in-person course introducing international and multilingual students to foundational legal reading and writing in the U.S. legal system.

Santamaria was part of the faculty of the LL.M. Success Academy, an online certificate program offered through Berkeley Law Executive Education. The program, which includes UC Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky among its instructors, prepares prospective and incoming LL.M. students from any U.S. law school in legal research and writing, generative artificial intelligence in legal practice, oral communication, and professional networking. Santamaria taught the legal research and writing and legal English modules.

UC Law San Francisco

In addition to directing the Habeas Institute, Santamaria holds an appointment as director and staff attorney for specialized legal programs at UC Law SF, overseeing institutional curricula, legal clinic operations, and public interest technology initiatives.

San Francisco Law School (Alliant International University)

Santamaria served as an adjunct professor and director of the Immigration Law Clinic externship program at San Francisco Law School, where he taught asylum law.

City College of San Francisco

Santamaria teaches English as a Second Language to level 1 students at City College of San Francisco (CCSF). He was elected to the institution's Academic Senate in 2017 and has served on its Distance Learning Advisory Committee.

Television

In April 2025, Santamaria appeared on KTVU FOX 2 to discuss H-1B visa policy changes under the Trump administration and their implications for employers and foreign workers.

Santamaria contributes a community legal column to El Tecolote, a bilingual Spanish-English newspaper serving San Francisco's Mission District, published by Acción Latina. His April 2026 column, “$6,000 for a work permit? How to avoid a common notario scam,” examined a San Francisco Superior Court order requiring Lacayo & Associates to pay more than $600,000 for operating a predatory notario scheme and explained how noncitizens can identify fraudulent immigration service providers under 8 C.F.R. § 274a.12.

In April 2026, Santamaria provided commentary to AsAmNews on mass deportation policy and constitutional due process protections at the outlet's Common Ground conference in San Francisco. The panel, moderated by journalist Robert Handa, also included a Republican Central Committee member.

Also in April 2026, AsAmNews cited Santamaria among attorneys providing analysis of the Trump administration's executive order challenging birthright citizenship under the Fourteenth Amendment, which was then pending before the Supreme Court.

Santamaria has additionally been cited in immigration policy coverage by the San Francisco Epoch Times, addressing deportation policy, due process, and the economic impact of immigrants in California.

Public Presentations

In March 2018, Santamaria provided legal analysis to the Daly City Council on federal immigration developments, visa options, including constitutional privacy protections, Fourth Amendment standards for federal warrants, and enforcement mechanisms affecting immigrant communities.

Professional Recognition

Santamaria was selected as a Super Lawyers Rising Star in 2020, 2021, and 2022 for his work in immigration law, including asylum, family-based immigration, employment-based visas, and deportation defense. The Rising Stars designation is awarded annually to the top 5 percent of attorneys in each state through a peer-nominated, research-based evaluation process.

He has been a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) since 2013.

In 2025, Santamaria delivered a presentation on artificial intelligence, equity, and the law at the Filipino Bar Association of Northern California (FBANC)’s Liwanag conference, held at the Cotchett Law Center at UC Law SF. The presentation was approved for Mandatory Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) credit.

He serves as co-coordinator of the Refugee and Crisis Interest Group of the California Association of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (CATESOL), where he has developed webinars and professional development programs for language instructors, including Top Immigration Resources for ESL Teachers, and contributed to the dissemination of Know Your Rights educational materials for educators working with multilingual and immigrant student communities.

Selected Publications and Scholarship

  • Santamaria, Marc Anthony (2014). “The ‘What E.L.S.E.’ Resource Guide for E.S.L. Students.” TESOL Capstone Field Project. University of San Francisco. repository.usfca.edu/capstone/74/[
  • Santamaria, Marc Anthony (2016). “Why Immigrants Benefit the United States Economy and the Legal and Tax Issues Chinese, Filipinos and Vietnamese Face When Immigrating to the U.S.” S.J.D. Dissertation. Golden Gate University School of Law Digital Commons. Paper 67. digitalcommons.law.ggu.edu/theses/67/
  • Santamaria, Marc Anthony (April 21, 2026). “$6,000 for a work permit? Here’s how to avoid a common notario scam.” El Tecolote. San Francisco: Acción Latina.