Acosta joined Mitchell Hamline in 2016 as a clinical instructor, teaching the Health Law Clinic and overseeing the Medical-Legal Partnership between the law school and United Family Medicine, a Federally Qualified Healthcare (FQHC) facility in St. Paul. She previously practiced at Stinson Leonard Street as an attorney in the immigration law group, where she represented clients in employment-based immigration matters and supervised non-immigration attorneys on pro bono immigration matters for clients of the Deinard Clinic.
From 2004 to 2010, Acosta served as an immigration attorney for the Lutheran Social Services of New York (LSSNY) Immigration Legal Services Program, where she provided direct legal services to low-income immigrant populations in New York City. As part of her work with LSSNY, she also served as lead attorney in the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS) Special Registration Project, where she represented men from Muslim majority countries placed in removal proceedings after complying with the NSEERS Special Registration Program. Her work with the NSEERS Special Registration Project included litigating a legal and constitutional challenge to the NSEERS program before the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in Rajah v. Mukasey. She earned a J.D. from Columbia Law School and her undergraduate degree from the University of Minnesota.