More AALS: Immigration Law Values Program, Michael Olivas Honored

I just returned to rainy California from balmy New Orleans, where tthe Association of American Law Schools 2019 annual meeting concluded yesterday.  As usual, the Immigration Law Section put together some great programs.  Besides the New Voices in Immigration Law Program, the Section sponsored a program on Immigration Law Values, a particularly timely topic in the time of Trump.

Here is the official description of the panel:

The Trump presidency has sought to comprehensively dismantle mechanisms that welcome, value, and integrate immigrants in favor of a stance maintaining that the United States does not welcome or value immigrants—thereby calling into question basic principles that many have believed to have long since been resolved and settled. But the values implicated by immigration law are complex and difficult to define. While the United States has long proclaimed to be a “nation of immigrants,” immigration law has always sent conflicting signals. This session will examine fundamental values of contemporary immigration law and examine immigration law values past, present, and future. The session will also explore whether there are values not currently be understood as settled principles that should be. For example, is immigration law immoral if it results in separation of families? Does immigration adjudication meet basic norms of fairness? What would make immigration law closer to realizing immigration ideals?

Presenters included:

Steven Bender, Seattle University School of Law

Elizabeth F. Cohen, The Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs of Syracuse University

 

Kit Johnson, University of Oklahoma College of Law

 

Anil Kalhan, Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law

 

Christopher Lasch, University of Denver Sturm College of Law

 

It was a great panel and got me thinking more about the current state of our immigration law.

 

 

 

Besides the section activities, there were some other immigration highlights at the 2019 annual meeting Immigration Law Professor, past AALS President, and past chair of the Immigration Section, Michael A. Olivas was recognized before the AALS House of Representatives as the recipient of the 2018 AALS Triennial Award for Lifetime Service to Legal Education and to the Legal Profession. AALS Executive Committee member Erwin Chemerinsky describes the award as “a law professor’s Hall of Fame.”  Michael, who is retiring this year, was also honored by the Latina/o law professors at a gala at Loyola New Orleans law school.  Besides being an amazing immigration law scholar, Michael has mentored many other scholars, myself included.

 

As always, it was a productive and exciting AALS annual meeting.

 

KJ