National Immigration Policy Reform

Twice over the past two years Congress has considered and ultimately rejected legislation combining increased border enforcement, a guest worker program, and a path to citizenship for illegal aliens (often criticized as amnesty). Although the death knell has sounded for the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007, it fanned an already heated controversy into a firestorm of debate on immigration policy across the country and on law school Walls everywhere. Three experts on immigration policy will continue this debate at YLS on Monday.

Michael Cutler is a Fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies and a former INS Special Agent. He has testified as an expert witness at nine Congressional hearings on immigration law enforcement having been called by members of both political parties. Mr. Cutler appears frequently on television and radio programs including the O'Reilly Radio Factor, O'Reilly's No Spin Zone, Fox News and the Lou Dobbs Tonight Program on CNN.

Randel Johnson is Vice President for Labor, Immigration, and Employee Benefits of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the world's largest business federation. Mr. Johnson sets the policy of the Chamber as it pertains to comprehensive immigration reform, including visa and border policy. He has testified in Congress to the need for "earned targeted adjustment" and ultimately legal status for undocumented workers.

Michael Wishnie is a Clinical Professor of Law at Yale Law School where he supervises the Worker and Immigrant Rights Advocacy clinic. At NYU School of Law, he co-directed the Arthur Garfield Hays Civil Liberties Program at New York University School of Law. Before teaching he worked in New York as a Skadden Fellow and as a staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society.