Latinos & Immigration in America- Event

Posted by Mona

Latinos & Immigration in America
A Discussion about Arizona’s Anti-Immigrant Law
& Upcoming Legal Challenges

Guest Speaker
Thomas A. Saenz
MALDEF President and General Counsel

Panelists:
Jorge Barón, Director of Northwest Immigrant Rights Project
Luis Fraga, Professor University of Washington
Pramila Jayapal, Director of OneAmerica
Shankar Narayan, ACLU
Rebecca Smith, National Employment Law Project

Moderator:
Dan Ford, Latina/o Bar Association of Washington

Wednesday, June 2, 2010
7:00p.m-9:00p.m.
Town Hall
1119 8th Avenue
Seattle, WA 98101

Kindly RSVP to Fé Lopez at fe.f.lopez@lbaw.org

The need for national immigration reform has never been greater. On April 23, 2010, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed SB1070 which requires law enforcement to question people about their immigration status during everyday police encounters and criminalizes immigrants for failing to carry their "papers."

MALDEF President Thomas Saenz will speak on MALDEF's legal challenge to the Arizona law and on the pressing need for immigration reform. Following Saenz’s speech, a panel of speakers, moderated by Dan Ford of the Latina/o Bar Association of Washington, will join Saenz to discuss these issues as well as the recent incident involving the beating of a Latino man and the use of racial slurs by a Seattle police officer.

Thomas A. Saenz
MALDEF President and General Counsel
Thomas A. Saenz is President and General Counsel of MALDEF. Previously, as Counsel to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Saenz honed his leadership skills by serving on the four-person executive team to the mayor, where he provided legal and policy advice on major initiatives. Saenz had previously practiced civil rights litigation at MALDEF for 12 years. During that time, he was a leader in the successful challenge to California's unconstitutional Proposition 187, and he led numerous civil rights cases in the areas of immigrants' rights, education, employment, and voting rights. He gruaduated summa cum laude from Yale University, and he received his law degree from Yale Law School.

Sponsored by:
Schroeter Goldmark & Bender
Latina/o Bar Association of Washington

Co-Hosted by:
CASA Latina
Columbia Legal Services
El Centro De La Raza
Northwest Immigrant Rights Project
OneAmerica
Seattle University School of Law
University of Washington School of Law