20 Years After the 1996 Immigration Laws: Revisiting an Experiment in Comprehensive Severity

Friday, October 14, 2016

8:00 AM-5:00 PM

The 2016 Drexel Law Review Symposium will feature leading experts on immigration policy who will critically reassess three laws enacted by Congress in 1996: the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act and the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act.

With immigration again the subject of election-year controversy and with social movements and immigrant communities forcefully advocating reform, the 2016 Drexel Law Review Symposium will critically reassess this experiment in “comprehensive immigration severity.” Leading experts will examine the origins and operation of those laws and their broader legacy and significance. Speakers will also discuss visions and strategies for reform and the challenges that advocates face in pursuing those reforms.

#DrexelLR16

SYMPOSIUM SCHEDULE: 

8:00–8:30        Registration and Light Breakfast

8:30–8:45        Welcome and Introductions

 

• Roger Dennis, Founding Dean and Professor of Law, Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law
• Anil Kalhan, Associate Professor of Law, Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law 

8:45–10:00      Panel One: The Origins and Consequences of Immigration Severity (I)

Moderator: Jaya Ramji-Nogales, I. Herman Stern Professor of Law and Co-Director, Institute for International Law and Public Policy, Temple University Beasley School of Law

Presenters
T. Alexander Aleinikoff, Visiting Professor of Law, Columbia Law School 

• Expedited Exclusion and Credible Fear: The Unintended Consequences of a Reasonable Compromise

Nancy Morawetz, Professor of Clinical Law, New York University School of Law

• Stealth Provisions of the 1996 Laws and Illusory Congressional Intent

Wadie Said, Professor of Law, University of South Carolina School of Law

• Material Support, Secret Evidence, and the National Security Implications of the 1996 Immigration Statutes

10:00–10:15    Break

10:15–11:45    Panel Two: The Origins and Consequences of Immigration Severity (II)

Moderator: Sarah Paoletti, Practice Professor of Law and Director, Transnational Law Clinic, University of Pennsylvania Law School

Presenters:
Lucas Guttentag, Professor of the Practice of Law, Stanford Law School; Senior Research Scholar in Law, Robina Foundation Visiting Human Rights Fellow, and Lecturer in Law, Yale Law School; and Senior Counselor to the Secretary of Homeland Security, U.S. Department of Homeland Security

• Reflections on INS v. St. Cyr: Theory and Strategy in the Battle Over Judicial Review

Eleanor Acer, Senior Director, Refugee Protection, Human Rights First

• Undermining Asylum, Human Rights, and Efficient Processing: The 1996 Immigration Law’s Barriers to Asylum Twenty Years Later

Jason Cade, Assistant Professor of Law, University of Georgia School of Law

• Judging Immigration Equity: Proportionality and the Deportation System

Rebecca Sharpless, Clinical Professor of Law, Director, Immigration Clinic, and Roger Schindler Fellow, University of Miami School of Law

• At the Border of Agency Expertise: Chevron Deference and the Immigration Consequences of Crimes

11:45-12:00    Break

12:00-1:15      Lunch and Keynote Speaker

Frank Sharry, Founder and Executive Director, America’s Voice

• Backlash, Big Stakes and Bad Laws: How the Right Went for Broke and the Left Fought Back in the Fight over the 1996 Immigration Laws

1:15–1:30        Break

1:30–3:00        Panel Three: Contemporary Strategies to Advance Immigrants’ Rights

Moderator: Richard Frankel, Associate Professor of Law, Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law

Presenters:
Alison Parker, Director, U.S. Program, Human Rights Watch 

• UsingInternational Human Rights Law Strategies to Challenge the 1996 Immigration Statutes

Helen Gym, Councilwoman At-Large, Philadelphia City Council

• Campaigning for Immigrants’ Rights in Philadelphia

Caitlin Barry, Assistant Professor of Law, Director, Farmworker Legal Aid Clinic, and Co-Director, Community Interpreter Internship Program, Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law

• Building through Bars: Challenging the Stigma of Criminality in Local Immigration Policies

Michael J. Wishnie, Deputy Dean for Experiential Education, William O. Douglas Clinical Professor of Law, and Director, Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization, Yale Law School 

• State DAPA?

3:00–3:15        Break

3:15–4:45        Panel Four: Rethinking Immigration Severity

Moderator: Jennifer J. Lee, Assistant Clinical Professor of Law, Temple University Beasley School of Law

Presenters: 
Annie Lai, Assistant Clinical Professor of Law, University of California, Irvine, School of Law 

• Life After the Plea: Crime-Based Deportation and Post-Conviction Rehabilitative Relief 20 Years After IIRIRA

Angélica Cházaro, Assistant Professor of Law, University of Washington School of Law

• Dismantling the “Criminal Alien” Paradigm

Jennifer Chacón, Professor of Law, University of California, Irvine, School of Law

• Liminal Legality and the 1996 Immigration Laws

Jill E. Family, Commonwealth Professor of Law and Government and Director, Law and Government Institute, Widener University Commonwealth Law School

• The Future Relief of Immigration Law

4:45-5:00        Closing Discussion

• Anil Kalhan, Associate Professor of Law, Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law 
• Richard Frankel, Associate Professor of Law, Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law

5:00–6:30        Reception

Register