Charles Kuck, the former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, nominated Azadeh Shahshahani for her work in 2018 on two particular matters.

Kuck credited Shahshahani, the legal and advocacy director for the immigrants’ rights group Project South, for leading successful opposition to Senate Bill 452. It would have mandated local police collaboration with federal immigration authorities, which Kuck said was unconstitutional and “would have entangled the State of Georgia in costly litigation and caused innumerable damage to our reputation.”