Luis Argueta is a Guatemalan-American director and producer. The Silence of Neto, a coming-of-age film set in 1954 Cold-War Guatemala, is the first internationally recognized and awarded Guatemalan film. The Guardian listed Mr. Argueta as one of Guatemala’s National Living Icons, alongside Nobel Laureate Rigoberta Menchu and Singer/Songwriter Ricardo Arjona. abUSed: The Postville Raid is Argueta’s first documentary film in his Immigration Trilogy. The second documentary film, ABRAZOS, follows the journey of 14 U.S. citizen children from Minnesota to Guatemala to meet their grandparents—and in some instances their siblings—for the first time. Luis Argueta’s films can now be viewed online at www.luisarguetaa.com.
Maurice Belanger is an expert in the field of immigration policy. Until recently, Maurice was Director of Public Information for the National Immigration Forum, where he served for 25 years as an analyst and writer in various capacities. He produced a news bulletin on immigration law and policy, incorporating political context and background to help readers understand current developments. The bulletin and short papers analyzing policy developments and trends in immigration helped make immigration policy accessible to readers. Prior to his work at the Forum, Maurice worked for the American Civil Liberties Union. He has a degree from Cornell University.
Kalina M. Brabeck, PhD, is a licensed psychologist with twelve years of experience in clinical work and research with Latino immigrant families. She is an Associate Professor and Department Chair in the Department of Counseling, Educational Leadership and School Psychology at Rhode Island College. She has been an affiliated member of the Center for Human Rights and International Justice at Boston College and a co-investigator with the Migration and Human Rights Project since 2007. She is currently a Foundation for Child Development Young Scholar, conducting mixed-methods research on the influence of immigrant parent legal vulnerability on developmental outcomes for U.S.-born children.
Jessica Chicco, JD, was Human Rights Fellow at the Center for Human Rights and International Justice at Boston College, 2010–2015. As part of the Center’s Migration and Human Rights Project, Ms. Chicco’s work included interdisciplinary collaborations with community-based immigrant organizations in the greater Boston area. As the supervising attorney for the Center’s Post-Deportation Human Rights Project, Ms. Chicco worked with and on behalf of deported individuals, and successfully reunited deportees with their families in the United States. She has also worked alongside Professor Daniel Kanstroom on the drafting of a Declaration on the Rights of Expelled and Deported Persons.
Elaine P. Congress, DSW, LCSW, is Professor and Associate Dean at Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service, as well as co-founder and Educational Director of the Fordham Center for Nonprofit Leaders. At the UN, Dr. Congress represents the International Federation of Social Workers and serves on the NGO Committee on Migration. She heads the Publications Council for the Council on Social Work Education and has published extensively in the area of cultural diversity and immigrants. She is the author/editor of seven books, including Social Work with Immigrants and Refuges: Legal Issues, Clinical Skills, and Advocacy and Multicultural Perspectives in Working with Families.
Katie Dingeman-Cerda, PhD, is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology & Criminology at the University of Denver. Her research examines the subjective experience and unintended consequences of the modern deportation regime. Her research is funded by the National Science Foundation, UC Berkeley Center for Human Rights, and UC Irvine Center for Law, Society, and Culture. Her publications appear in the La Verne Law Review and in an edited volume, Punishing Immigrants: Policy, Politics, and Injustice (NYU Press, 2012). Prior to academia, she was a social worker for refugee families and unaccompanied minors in immigration detention. She serves as an expert witness for Central American and Caribbean migrants in removal proceedings.
Cristina Hunter, PhD, has worked on multiple research projects related to the experiences of Latino migrants in the United States, including transnational research with the Center for Human Rights and International Justice at Boston College; the NICHD-funded Kindergarten Language Study/Intervention with Spanish-speaking young children; and developmental and longitudinal projects with minority families at the Center for Research for Culture Development and Education at New York University. She is currently the Associate Director of Research Initiatives at the Barbara and Patrick Roche Center for Catholic Education at Boston College.
Yliana Johansen-Méndez, JD, worked for the Center for Human Rights and International Justice’s Migration and Human Rights Project (MHRP), formerly the Post-Deportation Human Rights Project, while completing her JD at Boston College Law School. She collaborated on an interdisciplinary project designing and evaluating participatory Know Your Rights workshops with New England migrant organizations and worked in Zacualpa, Quiché, Guatemala. She is currently serving as Attorney Advisor for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review. Previously, she was an Equal Justice Works Fellow at Kids In Need of Defense in Los Angeles.
Maryanne Loughry, AM, PhD, is a Sister of Mercy and the Associate Director, Jesuit Refugee Service Australia. Dr. Loughry has been associated with the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) since 1986. She has worked in Indochinese refugee camps in the Philippines (1988) and the Vietnamese Detention Centres in Hong Kong (1990, 1992–93) as a psychologist and trainer. Dr. Loughry is a Research Professor at Boston College, at the Centre for Human Rights and International Justice and the Graduate School of Social Work. She is a research associate of the Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford, where she was the Pedro Arrupe tutor (1997–2004). In 2010, Dr. Loughry was awarded the Order of Australia (AM) for service to refugees and displaced persons.
Judge Dana Leigh Marks is President of the National Association of Immigrant Judges (NAIJ). She has served as either President or Vice President of NAIJ since July 1999. Judge Marks has been an Immigration Judge in San Francisco since January 1987. Prior to her appointment as an Immigration Judge she was an attorney in private practice for ten years, specializing in immigration law. She served as lead counsel in the landmark case of INS v. Cardoza-Fonseca, 480 U.S. 421 (1987), which established that persons applying for asylum need only prove a reasonable possibility of future persecution. She has testified before Congress, lectured, and published numerous articles on the urgent need to restructure U.S. Immigration Courts.
Ali Noorani has more than a decade of successful leadership in public policy advocacy, nonprofit management, and coalition organizing, across a wide range of issues. He continues this mission as Executive Director of the National Immigration Forum, advocating for the value of immigrants and immigration to the nation. Under Noorani’s leadership since 2008, the Forum plays a leadership role and works closely with business, law enforcement, faith and immigrant leadership across the country to ensure that New Americans have the skills, opportunities, and status they need to reach their fullest potential.
Brittney Nystrom is Director for Advocacy at Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service in Washington, DC and is the organization’s lead campaign strategist to ensure it achieves its key advocacy priority objectives. Nystrom is a recognized expert on immigration and refugee issues, has testified before the U.S. House of Representatives and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and is a volunteer case screener for the Board of Immigration Appeals Pro Bono Project. Previously, she served as Director of Policy and Legal Affairs at the National Immigration Forum, Legal Director at the Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights Coalition (“CAIR Coalition”), and an associate with Fried Frank LLP. Nystrom holds degrees from the University of Notre Dame and Northwestern University School of Law. She is admitted to the bar in Washington, DC, and Illinois.
Katherine Porterfield, PhD, is a clinical psychologist at the Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture, where she provides care to individuals and families who have survived torture and refugee trauma. Dr. Porterfield has served as an expert in criminal and human rights cases involving torture and war trauma and has consulted on international cases involving human rights violations. She has trained medical and legal professionals in the consequences of war trauma and torture. Dr. Porterfield chaired the American Psychological Association’s Task Force on the Psychosocial Effects of War on Children and Families Who Are Refugees From Armed Conflict Residing in the United States.
Rubén G. Rumbaut, PhD, is Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Irvine. Over the past three decades he has directed seminal empirical studies of immigrants and refugees in the United States, including the landmark Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study (with Alejandro Portes). Among other books, he is the co-author of Immigrant America: A Portrait, and Legacies: The Story of the Immigrant Second Generation, which won the American Sociological Association’s top award for Distinguished Scholarship. He is the founding chair of the International Migration Section of the American Sociological Association and an elected member of the National Academy of Education and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Dora B. Schriro is the Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection, a state agency focused on public safety and service. Dr. Schriro served as Senior Advisor to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano and was the first Director of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office of Detention Policy and Planning. During her tenure at DHS, she authored A Report on the Preliminary Assessment of ICE Detention Policies and Practices: A Recommended Course of Action for Systems Reforms, DHS’s template for improving the nation’s immigration detention system. She teaches and publishes in the areas of correction and immigration innovation and systems reform. Dr. Schriro currently serves as a commissioner on the boards of the Women’s Refugee Commission and the American Bar Association’s Commission on Immigration.
Erin Sibley, PhD, received her EdM in Human Development and Psychology at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and received her PhD in Applied Developmental and Educational Psychology at Boston College. She is currently a research associate at the Center for Optimized Student Support at Boston College. Her primary research interests are the academic achievement of immigrant children and educational involvement among immigrant families.
Judge Denise Noonan Slavin is the Executive Vice President of the National Association of Immigrant Judges (NAIJ). She has served as either President or Vice President of NAIJ since July 1999. She was appointed as an Immigration Judge in March 1995, and since then served at the court in Miami, Florida until April 2015, when she transferred to the Baltimore Immigration Court. She was a trial attorney for legacy INS and the Office of Special Investigations in the Criminal Division of DOJ. She previously served as an Investigator for the Maryland Commission on Human Relations, and as a Social Worker for the Department of Social Services in Baltimore City.
David B. Thronson is Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Law at the Michigan State University College of Law, where he is co-founder of the Immigration Law Clinic. His research explores the intersection of family and immigration law, with a particular focus on children. As a Skadden Fellow, Thronson founded the immigration project at the Door’s Legal Services Center, and as a Gibbons Fellow in Public Interest and Constitutional Law he litigated a wide variety of civil rights issues related to immigration and to access to education.