About

Born and educated in the U.S. island territory of Puerto Rico, Mr. Malaret earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) and his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Puerto Rico School of Law, both in San Juan, Puerto Rico.  Mr. Malaret’s studies at UPR also included participation in study-abroad programs that allowed him the opportunity to spend time completing Italian language studies at the Università per Stranieri in Perugia, Italy, and law studies at the University of Arizona’s James E. Rogers College of Law in Tucson, Arizona.      

In 2005 Mr. Malaret was admitted to the practice of law in Puerto Rico and he began his law career in government, spending three years as a law clerk at the Puerto Rico Court of Appeals.  After moving on from the public sector, Mr. Malaret was offered an opportunity at a small law firm in San Juan that specializes solely in family-based immigration.  Working alongside one of the most highly experienced and well-respected immigration attorneys in all of Puerto Rico, Mr. Malaret quickly learned all the nuances of this challenging and interesting field and, in the process, discovered that his own personal and educational background made him especially adept at working with a diverse and multicultural clientele in need of representation before U.S. government agencies.  He developed a passion for seeking justice for immigrants and he soon became convinced that he wanted to dedicate the rest of his professional career solely to the field of immigration law.  

Mr. Malaret continued practicing immigration law in Puerto Rico until 2016, when his wife’s own professional career compelled their family to permanently relocate to South Florida.  As an attorney who is admitted to the practice of law in a U.S. territory and who exclusively practices federal immigration law, Mr. Malaret is able to represent clients in immigration courts all throughout the United States as well as before the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the U.S. Department of State (DOS).*  Thus, Mr. Malaret has continued to practice immigration law full-time in Florida, where he still resides with his family.  After more than four years working as a supervising attorney for a top-ranked immigration law firm with presence in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties, in 2021 Mr. Malaret decided to start his own immigration law practice – HJM Immigration Law PLLC – to continue to serve clients in the South Florida area.

Mr. Malaret is a native Spanish speaker and he is therefore fully bilingual in English and Spanish.  Moreover, having majored in foreign languages in college (and also from having lived in the Netherlands while pursuing international business studies in 1997-1999), Mr. Malaret speaks Italian, German, and Dutch fluently, and he is also moderately proficient in Portuguese and French.  The fact that his clients come from many different countries around the world has at different times required Mr. Malaret to effectively and professionally put all his language skills to use.  Furthermore, as a seasoned world traveler, Mr. Malaret finds it very easy to connect with people from many different backgrounds and to be keenly aware of their particular cultural differences.    

*In the area of immigration, the federal rules allow an attorney admitted in any state or territory to appear before the Department of Homeland Security (formerly INS) on immigration matters. 8 C.F.R. 292, Florida Bar v. Sperry, 373 U.S. 379 (1963).