As 2019 comes to a close, MIA finishes its sixth year of providing free and affordable deportation defense and immigration services to Mid-South children, families, and survivors.
Our work has not gotten any easier this year.
Bureaucratic walls block our clients from obtaining the safety and security they deserve while our communities are terrorized by family separation and the expansion of immigration detention.
MIA’s staff is fighting back, and we need your support.
In 2019, MIA:
- Began providing free representation to kids in federal transitional foster care through our Children’s Project.
We meet with each child placed in Tennessee to explain their rights and ensure they have legal representation before the immigration court. These children entered the U.S. without a parent and are awaiting reunification with family in the U.S.
- Launched our Asylum Initiative as a response to the expansion of immigration detention in the rural South.
We provide legal orientations to asylum seekers detained in a maximum-security prison in Mississippi, helping them understand the legal process and their rights. We assist asylum seekers with requests to be released from prison to pursue their claims for asylum while living with family or friends in the U.S.
- Received 3 years’ continuation funding for our Survivors’ Project, MIA’s partnership with CasaLuz.
The Survivors’ Project began in 2016 as a collaborative effort to provide holistic victim advocacy and legal services to survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, and human trafficking. In addition to receiving 3 years’ continuation funding for the project, the partnership also received funding to expand our services to survivors of other violent crimes, such as aggravated assault, attempted murder, kidnapping, and similar crimes.
With your support, we can expand our services to reach more of our friends and neighbors at risk of deportation. Although cruel new laws and policies restrict pathways to legal status for immigrants and refugees, one thing has not changed since the day we opened our doors in 2013: for many families, children, and survivors in the Mid-South, expensive legal fees are the only barrier to a life of safety and stability.
