Freedom Found Initiative

Through this program we represent people who have fled their countries because they fear persecution and torture for the kind of person they are or the opinions or beliefs they hold. In particular, we serve those people seeking asylum before the Memphis Immigration Court and those detained in the numerous facilities run by or contracted by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement across Louisiana and Mississippi.

Our goal is to ensure that people who seek refuge in this country are treated with fairness and dignity. Through this program we focus on challenging the immigration system through direct representation in removal proceedings, before the Board of Immigration Appeals and the federal circuit courts of appeal, with an eye towards identifying issues for litigation and advocacy efforts.

Our representation is predicated on the idea that migration as a human right and our strategies are focused on the abolition of immigration detention.

Mid-South Family Unity Program

Through this program we represent people who have been living in the MidSouth for many years, have established lives and built families in this area, having worked and paid taxes only to find themselves swept up in immigration proceedings. We fight for these families to stay together and stay strong.

Our goal is to ensure that individuals are able to remain with their families to support and sustain themselves while they fight for their right to remain in this country. We do this by providing direct representation to those who have been detained or who are at risk of being detained by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In addition to direct representation, we seek opportunities for outreach to educate and engage at-risk communities in order to prevent issues with immigration.

We represent clients throughout their immigration process with the ultimate goal of gaining lawful status in this country. Along the way, clients are often eligible for work authorization and require support for life changes. As we assist on individual cases, we try to identify patterns of injustice in the immigration system and strive to improve the system through strategic litigation, advocacy through professional associations, and participation in regional and national networks.

LGBTQI Focus

Across the globe, LGBTQI people are subject to the threat of murder, rape, trafficking, sex slavery, discrimination and subjugation, often sanctioned by their own governments. Fleeing such dangerous conditions, when they get to the U.S., LGBTQI people are often subject to stigma that comes from the overlapping marginalization of identities as immigrants. The burden of defending one’s legitimacy is even greater for transgender people, whose gender the state struggles to define and whose legal status is in question. Systemic violence shows up throughout the immigration system and in no place is it worse than in detention. LGBTQI people in particular face extreme violence because they are often held in gender inappropriate facilities or in solitary confinement "for their own safety". We want to make sure people can live freely and love who they choose without threat of violence.

We believe that it is important to prioritize the representation of LGBTQI people specifically because we have an understanding of the specific issues affecting LGBTQI people. We can represent people in a way that is not only sensitive but acknowledges the variant identities of LGBTQI people and appreciate how those identities inform their legal claims. Further, we know that it is not only harder for LGBTQI people to get jobs, but doubly hard for undocumented immigration LGBTQI people to get a job and earn sufficient income to pay for legal counsel.