Christina Swatzell and Allison Wannamaker with Mid-South Immigration Advocates (MIA) will be spoke at the annual American Immigration Lawyers Association Mid-South Fall Chapter Conference 2019.
Ms. Swatzell will address the evolving landscape of immigration detention in the South, while Ms. Wannamaker will address guidelines for practice in regional Immigration Courts.
The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) is the national association of more than 15,000 attorneys and law professors who practice and teach immigration law. AILA Mid-South is the regional chapter of the national organization representing Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana. The highly regarded annual conference will be held this year in Chattanooga at the Read House Hotel on October 4 and 5, 2019.
Allison Wannamaker is the Managing Director of MIA. Ms. Wannamaker’s substantive areas of practice include removal defense and the representation of unaccompanied immigrant children. With the firm Lewis Thomason, Ms. Wannamaker concentrated her private practice on immigration law and naturalization. Ms. Wannamaker previously served with Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC) detention programs in Los Angeles and New Orleans. She is a graduate of Rhodes College (B.A., International Studies) and Georgetown University Law Center. Ms. Wannamaker is a member of the executive council of the Tennessee Bar Association’s Immigration Law Section, and is a former treasurer of the AILA Mid-South Chapter.
Christy M. Swatzell, MIA’s Asylum Initiative Director, is a graduate of the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University in White Plains, NY. MIA’s Asylum Initiative is dedicated to assisting asylum seekers detained at the Tallahatchie Correctional Facility. Before joining MIA, Ms. Swatzell was the Co-Legal Director at Latino Memphis where she represented detained immigrants in removal and custody proceedings. Prior to Latino Memphis, Ms. Swatzell became a staff attorney for the Legal Aid Society of Westchester County New York where she represented indigent defendants charged with felony crimes.
