ATTENTION ALL JUDGES (ACTIVE & RETIRED): THE CANADIANS ARE COMING (Along with Judges From Other Western Hemisphere & EU Countries)! – MEET, GREET, SHARE NOTES, AND LEARN ALONG WITH YOUR INTERNATIONAL COLLEAGUES – HEAR KEYNOTE SPEAKER DORIS MEISSNER, ONE OF THE “ALL TIME GREATS” OF U.S. MIGRATION LAW, & MANY OTHER “SUPERSTAR” SPEAKERS FROM AROUND THE WORLD! – THERE’S STILL TIME TO REGISTER FOR THE AMERICAS’ CHAPTER CONFERENCE OF THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REFUGEE & MIGRATION JUDGES @ THE BEAUTIFUL CAMPUS OF GEORGETOWN LAW IN WASHINGTON, D.C., AUGUST 1-5, 2018!

HERE’S A LINK TO MY PRIOR BLOG WITH ALL THE REGISTRATION INFORMATION:

https://wp.me/p8eeJm-2D7

HERE’S FORMER INS COMMISSIONER  DORIS MEISSNER’S PROFESSIONAL BIO:

Doris Meissner

Senior Fellow and Director, U.S. Immigration Policy Program

Doris Meissner, former Commissioner of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), is a Senior Fellow at MPI, where she directs the Institute’s U.S. immigration policy work.

Her responsibilities focus in particular on the role of immigration in America’s future and on administering the nation’s immigration laws, systems, and government agencies. Her work and expertise also include immigration and politics, immigration enforcement, border control, cooperation with other countries, and immigration and national security. She has authored and coauthored numerous reports, articles, and op-eds and is frequently quoted in the media. She served as Director of MPI’s Independent Task Force on Immigration and America’s Future, a bipartisan group of distinguished leaders. The group’s report and recommendations address how to harness the advantages of immigration for a 21st century economy and society.

From 1993-2000, she served in the Clinton administration as Commissioner of the INS, then a bureau in the U.S. Department of Justice. Her accomplishments included reforming the nation’s asylum system; creating new strategies for managing U.S. borders; improving naturalization and other services for immigrants; shaping new responses to migration and humanitarian emergencies; strengthening cooperation and joint initiatives with Mexico, Canada, and other countries; and managing growth that doubled the agency’s personnel and tripled its budget.

She first joined the Justice Department in 1973 as a White House Fellow and Special Assistant to the Attorney General. She served in various senior policy posts until 1981, when she became Acting Commissioner of the INS and then Executive Associate Commissioner, the third-ranking post in the agency. In 1986, she joined the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace as a Senior Associate. Ms. Meissner created the Endowment’s Immigration Policy Project, which evolved into the Migration Policy Institute in 2001.

Ms. Meissner’s board memberships include CARE-USA and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Inter-American Dialogue, the Pacific Council on International Diplomacy, the National Academy of Public Administration, the Administrative Conference of the United States, and the Constitution Society.

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Colleagues:

My good friend and colleague Ross Pattee, Executive Director of the Immigration & Refugee Board of Canada just told me that the “Canadian Delegation” to the upcoming IARMJ conference will be 30 strong!

Never in my lifetime has the role of Immigration Judges and other judges involved in asylum, refugee, and immigration adjudication been more in the news or more important than now! We all know the stress, tension, and pressure, as well as excitement, that comes from such constant public attention.

Now is the perfect time to take a few days off from the bench to share notes, helpful suggestions, best practices, and otherwise get to know and appreciate your colleagues performing similar functions elsewhere in the world. Knowing that “you are not alone” and that many others share and are dealing with the same challenges as you are has been one of the best features of IRMJ membership and participation for me throughout the years. You’ll also be learning from, and in dialogue with, world-class speakers and scholars, like my long-time friend and “fellow Badger” Doris Meissner, in one of the best legal learning environments in America — the facilities at Georgetown Law.

As one of the original “founding members” of the IARMJ, I know that it has been many years since we have had an event of this magnitude and caliber here in the United States. Who knows when another such opportunity will come our way?

I sincerely hope that you can and will join me and my colleagues from the IARMJ in August.

All the best in solidarity and due process,

Paul