A project of this scope does not come together without the collective, and often selfless, work of many individuals and institutions. We are indebted to the Offices of the President and Provost at Wake Forest University and in particular to President Nathan Hatch and Provost Jill Tiefenthaler, for their financial, administrative, and personal support in organizing the major conference on which this volume is based. That conference, “Immigration: Recasting the Debate,” was held in October 2007 as part of the important Voices of Our Time series for which Wake Forest University is rightly becoming widely respected. As such, it would have been impossible without the help, support, and organizational acumen of Sandra Boyette, Pam Barrett, and Jennifer Richwine in the office of University Special Events. A virtual army of students too numerous to name also helped in the organization and running of the conference, but we would like to specifically acknowledge the extraordinary organizational efforts of Tess Hetzel, Ross Williford, Daniel Budasoff, and Grace Johnson.
In organizing that conference, we were also fortunate to have the support of politicians, community activists, and academics whose intellectual contributions have touched this volume but whose written work is not included here. We would particularly like to acknowledge our debt to former U.S. Secretary of Labor Ray Marshall for his opening address and to Senator Mel Martinez for his willingness to deliver the closing equivalent. When last-minute travel difficulties prevented that, Senator Richard Burr graciously stepped in to close the conference. Again, we are very grateful. We also want to thank several individuals who participated in the conference and who remain central to the communities that they represent. Marisol Jiménez McGee of the El Pueblo advocacy organization spoke eloquently and passionately about the everyday challenges immigrants face in the United States, and José Isasi and Alejandro Manrique of the Qué Pasa media network provided crucial insights into the practical impact of immigration reform on the lives of immigrants and American communities. The conference, and the chapters that follow, were and are enriched by their contributions.
We also want to thank Margaret Taylor, professor of law at Wake Forest University, for underscoring the legal questions at stake in immigration reform and for recommending David Martin of the University of Virginia Law School as a contributor to this volume when circumstances prevented her from contributing a chapter. We also want to thank Gordon Hanson of the University of California at San Diego for his enlightening discussion of why immigration divides America, and one of our favorite and most gifted colleagues, Wake Forest’s Katy Harriger, for her discussion of constitutional issues surrounding immigrant status.
Finally, in the preparation of the manuscript, new and talented hands came into play: those of Alison Duncan as we went to press and those of Hilary Claggett and Audrey Fannin as the manuscript turned into a book and a public document. Debts abound. We thank you all. Let us hope we repay you with a more informed climate surrounding immigration reform.