Kids in Need of Defense Opens Atlanta Branch to Represent Immigrant Children Fleeing Central American Violence
Troutman Sanders was mentioned in a December 30 Daily Report article about Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) opening an Atlanta office to represent unaccompanied immigrant and refugee children in deportation proceedings.
KIND’s Atlanta office, the first in the Southeastern United States, is housed in space donated to the organization by Troutman Sanders. The firm has been involved with the group, nationally, for years and will collaborate with KIND and the Georgia Asylum and Immigration Network (GAIN), which represents adult immigrants, in joint efforts.
Atlanta partner Mark Newman, who heads Troutman Sanders’ immigration practice and helped bring KIND to Atlanta, said, “[The number of unaccompanied minors that the Officer of Refugee Resettlement placed with Georgia sponsors and pending deportation hearings are not problems] that [are] going to go away until our government and the governments down there improve [drug and gang violence] conditions.”
KIND was started by actress Angelina Jolie and Brad Smith, Microsoft’s chief legal counsel, in 2008.