Amanda Garcia

As a senior program associate for the Legal Orientation Program (LOP), Amanda provides support and technical assistance to nonprofit legal service providers that educate detained immigrants about their removal proceedings so they can make informed decisions about their cases in immigration court. Before joining Acacia, Amanda was a senior program associate at the Vera Institute of Justice where she also managed the LOP. During her time as a staff attorney with the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) in Chicago, she represented detained and non-detained individuals in removal proceedings, prepared family and humanitarian based applications, and delivered LOP programming to detention facilities in the Chicago area. She has practiced multiple areas of law including family, employment, business, and intellectual property. Prior to practicing immigration law, she served as a pastoral care volunteer for detained immigrants in the Chicago metropolitan area. Amanda earned her JD at Loyola University of Chicago School of Law in 2006 and her BA in philosophy from the University of Michigan in 2002.