Our Story

About Mid-South Immigration Advocates

These are the People We Serve

At Mid-South Immigration Advocates (MIA), we protect the most vulnerable members of our community by providing holistic, vigorous legal representation to children, survivors of violence, asylum seekers, and families at risk of deportation.

Our Mission

MIA is the first nonprofit law firm in the tri-state area whose core mission is to provide free and affordable immigration representation to low-income clients. Founded in 2013 by local immigration attorneys who recognized a need for quality legal services, MIA empowers those who feel powerless and helps give a voice to those who feel silenced by guiding clients through the immigration system with experience and compassion. ​
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Impact Statement
Our Staff
Our Values

Access to Justice

Access is half the battle. MIA focuses its resources on serving the most vulnerable communities, providing representation to those who would otherwise not have access to legal services.

Integrity and Accountability

MIA empowers its staff with the resources to maintain high standards, emphasizing impact, quality, and professional ethics in the provision of legal services. We won’t allow our clients, who are some of the most vulnerable among us, to be taken advantage of, misguided or move forward without clarity.

Partnership

We are stronger together. MIA partners with community-based organizations, direct services providers, and other Mid-South agencies to maximize the impact of our services.

Secular and Nonsectarian

MIA serves the immigrant community of the Mid-South regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, political opinion, national origin, criminal history, or immigration status. Immigrants’ rights are human rights.

Sustainability

MIA makes strategic decisions regarding programming, funding, and use of resources to ensure that the organization will be able to continue its work well into the future.

Partnerships

Gulf Coast Immigration Collaborative

The Gulf Coast Immigration Collaborative formed in 2020 to provide detained individuals with free legal support to get released, toward the goal of ending immigration detention altogether. Our multi-organization project formed to facilitate regional collaboration among advocates seeking to meet the need for legal support as ICE rapidly expanded detention in the region. The growing number of organizations involved include ISLA, MIA, Project Ishmael, Innovation Law Lab, and the pro bono project of the LSN Legal.
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Welcome South

Welcome South is a coalition of nonprofit law firms providing deportation defense to immigrants in the Mid-South region. Members include MIA, Advocates for Immigrant Rights and Community Legal Center’s Immigrant Justice Program. Welcome South was established in 2019 in response to the rapid increase in immigrants and asylum seekers subjected to detention and deportation in Arkansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee.
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CasaLuz

Since 2016, MIA and CasaLuz have partnered to provide holistic advocacy and support services to Latinx and Hispanic survivors of violent crime. CasaLuz empowers immigrant survivors to follow through with legal remedies while seeking safety, independence, and healing from the effects of violence. Through its culturally specific, trauma-informed approach, CasaLuz serves the complex needs of the Spanish-speaking community by providing free court advocacy, safety planning, survivor support groups, liaison assistance with law enforcement, individual counseling, and community education. By working together, our organizations increase our capacity to serve the community while improving outcomes for our mutual clients.
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Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition

Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) is a statewide, immigrant and refugee-led collaboration whose mission is to empower immigrants and refugees throughout Tennessee to develop a unified voice, defend their rights, and create an atmosphere in which they are recognized as positive contributors to the state.
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Detention Watch Network

Detention Watch Network (DWN) is a national coalition building power through collective advocacy, grassroots organizing, and strategic communications to abolish immigration detention in the United States. Network members include formerly detained people and their families, community and faith-based groups, legal service providers like MIA, lawyers, national and regional advocates and organizers, and law school clinics.
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