A panel discussion entitled “Cutting Edge Issues in Immigration Law: State Anti-Immigrant Statutes and Litigation” will be held at the Law School on Monday, February 13, 2012, from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm in the Sheffield Room. The Law School’s William Wayne Justice Center for Public Interest Law and the Immigration and Nationality Section of the State Bar of Texas are cosponsoring the event.
Professor Barbara Hines, codirector of the Law School’s Immigration Clinic, will moderate discussion by two nationally known attorneys who are involved in current challenges to state anti-immigrant statutes, Nina Perales, Director of Litigation at the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, and Sam Brooke, staff attorney with the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Immigrant Justice Project.
Perales is a leading civil rights litigator and an expert on a range of issues, including immigrants’ rights, voting rights, and redistricting litigation. Among her current cases, she recently successfully argued in the lawsuit challenging Arizona’s anti-immigrant law known as SB 1070. She also leads the litigation that has struck down repeated anti-immigrant laws in Farmers Branch, Texas. Brooke is litigating state anti-immigrant laws throughout the Southeast, including Alabama’s HB56, Georgia’s HB87, and South Carolina’s SB20.
The event will include two sessions. The first session, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., will explore the current wave of state anti-immigrant laws. The second session, from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m., will examine legal strategies in several pending cases challenging state anti-immigrant laws. Audience members may attend one or both sessions.
The State Bar of Texas has accredited this event for 2 hours of continuing legal education. The event is free and open to students, the law school community, and the public, but space is limited. Please RSVP to Rachel Sidopulos by February 8 to register.
Contact: Mary Crouter, assistant director of the William Wayne Justice Center for Public Interest Law, University of Texas School of Law, at 512-232-7855 or mcrouter@law.utexas.edu.