About
Deirdre Roney is from Detroit, graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in Russian Studies ( ‘80, US/Soviet Nuclear Policy) and Harvard Law School (‘87, emphasis on immigrant and human rights). Deirdre is an attorney.
After law school, Deirdre was a deputy district attorney for Los Angeles County in Downtown LA, East LA and Compton specializing in sex crimes. She was a pro bono lawyer for political asylees and immigration activists.
After having two children, Deirdre became a public education activist (PTA President in Malibu and volunteer in the elementary school of the largest housing project west of the Mississippi). She was a large-scale muralist, a Malibu planning commissioner and a volunteer for local political campaigns. Deirdre was executive director of a camp for children with life-threatening illnesses and a co-founder of a non-profit to cure a familial terminal disease.
Deirdre executive produced Sands of Silence: Waves of Courage, an award-winning documentary designed to empower survivors of sexual violence to speak and those around them to listen and react better, sandsofsilence.org. The film continues to be screened around the world. It’s a catalyst that saves lives, exposes decades of institutional abuse, sparks predators to rehabilitate and contributes to the #MeToo movement.
Deirdre executive produced I Belong, a short “get out the vote” (GOTV) film featuring BIPOC/LGBTQIA voters, distributed widely in Detroit during the 2022 midterms and used today by GOTV NGOs. She spent a month in Detroit during the 2022 midterms working with GOTV NGOs, canvassing, training canvassers, attending in-jail candidate events, protesting and marching against GOP/moneyed interests’ election corruption and being featured in a Guardian article about the election. Deirdre will return to Detroit 10/24 - 11/24 to GOTV during the 2024 elections. Deirdre works remotely, daily, with Detroit civil rights activists.
Deirdre serves, witnesses and protests along both sides of and the length of the US Southern border. She works with immigration NGOs from Brownsville/Matamoros to San Diego/Tijuana. She serves in migrant shelters and refugee camps, at ports of entry and remote wilderness areas, and distributes humanitarian supplies. She attended a southern AZ coroner seminar about migrant border-crossing deaths; participated in die-ins outside of for-profit immigrant prison corps headquarters; attended a federal court case trump brought against humanitarians for providing medical help to injured migrants; served with women’s rights activists in a femicide capital, Juarez MX and volunteered in the largest refugee camp on our southern border in Matamoros, MX. Deirdre regularly reads investigative reports and judicial opinions; attends legal seminars and NGO conferences/seminars/webinars; communicates with activists and lawyers, and takes action.
Deirdre’s been inside notorious immigrant prisons, visiting innocents locked up for fleeing horrors in their homelands. She’s been in domestic criminal incarceration facilities, including juvenile ones, as a Deputy DA and with the Southern California ACLU registering voters and logging abuse of power complaints against LA County Jail Sheriffs. Deirdre’s experience with our nation’s incarceration complex and “crimmigration” inform her discussions.
Deirdre served on the board of the Southern California ACLU's 501c4. She is an immigration activist, a pro-democracy, pro-rule of law, pro-civil rights and human rights activist, humanitarian and philanthropist, a GOTV vote and protect the vote activist, a certified legal observer at protests and a certified violence de-escalator.
Deirdre dialogues about her activist/humanitarian/legal knowledge and experience with small groups via zoom and in-person gatherings. Deirdre welcomes you to contact her at abitofearth7@gmail.com. No fees or other costs.
Deirdre is a voracious reader and traveler, an organic gardener/small farmer/beekeeper, a writer and artist. She lives in Malibu, California and Holualoa, Hawaii with her husband of 34 years. Her adult son and daughter live in Los Angeles. They all share custody of a rescue dog, Ollie.