Hannah the Immigration Lawyer
Help Hannah MacNorlin defend immigrant children and their parents who are being held in detention centers.
With your financial support, Hannah and her co-workers will provide legal representation and fight for due process giving these powerless families a better chance to stay together. Right now, the best chances for the babies and their mamas and papas to have any hope for reunification and asylum is for lawyers to represent them through legal channels. Without volunteer lawyers doing this work, the children literally have no one in their corner. We all want to help but most of us don't have the skills to do anything useful. Donate now and your money will do what you can't.
Hannah's story:
I've listened to my clients tell me about their experiences crossing the border for years, and recently, those stories have involved less humane treatment and increasing amounts of detention. "Family detention" has became a common experience for women and children crossing the border and it has an impact on immigrants in Atlanta. I've become part of the Center of Excellence to take on asylum cases in the hope that well-supported and prepared asylum cases can help change the ecosystem of the Atlanta Immigration Court where almost everyone loses their asylum case.
In the past several years I have wanted to go to Texas and volunteer in the border detention centers, but it didn't feel possible because it would mean leaving our 3 year old triplets with my wife alone, and it takes both of us to make our daily lives function. With the policy change to prosecute everyone who enters the US somewhere other than at a port of entry and therefore to separate kids from parents, I feel a greater sense of urgency. My community is offering to help care for and support my family when travel funds are raised to allow me to go.
(Hannah with her family)
About Hannah and her work:Hannah MacNorlin is a bilingual immigration attorney with the Latin American Association in Atlanta, Georgia where she handles primarily affirmative family based cases before US Citizenship and Immigration Services. In addition, she handles cases in removal proceedings, mostly children's cases as well as a few adult cases. She is proud to be part of the Center of Excellence in Atlanta , a collaborative of immigration attorneys who are handling pro bono asylum cases of women and children who have been released from the "family detention center" in Dilley, Texas in collaboration with the CARA project, Center for Gender and Refugee Studies at UC Hastings and Innovation LawLab.
Prior to working with the Latin American Association, Hannah worked at Catholic Charities Atlanta, starting in 2010 as a law student intern and becoming a staff attorney in 2012. At Catholic Charities, Hannah traveled weekly to Stewart Detention Center, teaching detained immigrants about their rights, what to expect in court, and doing workshops on pro se bond motions. She also handled primarily children's cases in removal proceedings, mostly from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
Long before becoming an attorney, Hannah was a student on the Border Studies
How the money collected will be used:
All donated funds would go first to cover the expenses for Hannah to spend a week at the border. She will go where the need is greatest, likely through the CARA Project at the Dilley Detention Center. Travel, lodging and expenses total between $1,000.00 and $2,000.00 for each volunteer to be trained and work for one week. Money raised will allow Hannah and her co-workers to volunteer on a rotating basis. They are willing to go as long as we can help support them. Sadly, lawyers who can represent these vulnerable people have been needed for years and they see no indication that the need will diminish anytime soon.
