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Ann Benson Legal Director Washington Defender Association's Immigration Project, Seattle ANN BENSON is the Directing Attorney for the Washington Defender Association’s Immigration Project. She provides training and technical assistance to defense attorneys, judges and prosecutors to understand the immigration consequences of criminal convictions facing noncitizen defendants and their families. Additionally, Ann works collaboratively with organizations in Washington State and throughout the country to defend the due process rights of immigrant defendants and to reverse the increasing trend of criminalizing immigrant communities. Along the way Ann has worked as the Legal Director of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project and taught immigration law at the University of Washington School of Law. She has served on the Board of Directors for the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, One America (formerly Hate Free Zone) and the National Network to End Violence Against Immigrant Women. In 2005 Ann received the Lexis Nexis Daniel Levy Memorial Award for Outstanding Achievement in Immigration Law. 2009 she was honored with the “Friend of the Judiciary” award from the Washington Women Lawyers Association. [April 2012] |