Blog | DeMine Immigration Law Firm

20 Years in the Courtroom: Thomas DeMine’s Journey

Written by Samuel Sotelo | Sep 25, 2026, 5:41:18 PM

Twenty years ago this week, Thomas E. DeMine III  was sworn in as a Florida attorney. Six of those years have been spent building DeMine Immigration alongside his wife, Indera. Here's the road that got him here.

Sworn In, September 2006

On September 22, 2006, Thomas E. DeMine III was admitted to The Florida Bar. He started where a lot of young attorneys do: in the courtroom, as a prosecutor with the Lee County State Attorney's Office, trying more felony jury cases than almost anyone else in his division.

From there, he spent close to a decade in private criminal defense, representing people through some of the hardest moments of their lives. That work shaped how he practices law today, long before he ever touched an immigration case.

Both Sides of the Courtroom

Not many attorneys can say they've sat on both sides of a criminal courtroom. Thomas has. He built his early career as a prosecutor, then spent close to a decade as a defense attorney, representing the very kind of clients he used to face across the room.

That range is rare, and it's part of what he brought with him into immigration law. Years of seeing a case from every angle means he doesn't walk into a client's file with just one perspective. He walks in with two decades of them.

A Full-Time Move to Immigration Law

In January 2020, Thomas stepped away from criminal defense entirely and put his full practice into immigration law, joining the firm his wife, attorney Indera DeMine, had built from a storage room four years earlier.

Since then, DeMine Immigration has grown from its original Fort Myers office into a firm with locations in Lehigh Acres and Bonita Springs, and expanded its services to include employment-based and investment-based immigration alongside its family-based and removal defense work.

Attorney Thomas DeMine at the Fort Myers office.

Twenty Years, One Standard

Two decades in a courtroom teaches you that preparation matters more than promises. That's the standard Thomas brought into immigration law, and it's the standard he holds the DeMine Immigration team to today.

Every case is different, and the families who walk through DeMine's doors deserve to be treated that way. Twenty years in, that's still what this work comes down to.

DeMine Immigration Law Firm

Congratulations, Thomas

From all of us at DeMine Immigration, thank you for twenty years of showing up for people. If you have questions about your own immigration options, we invite you to sit down with our team.

Schedule a Consultation →

Individual immigration cases depend on each person's specific circumstances and should be evaluated individually. This article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.