Advance ticket sales have ended but plenty of additional tickets remain available at the door.
Profs and Pints DC presents: “Understanding Refugee Law,” with Paul Grussendorf, former director of the Immigration and Asylum Law Clinic at George Washington University and author of My Trials: Inside America's Deportation Factories.
The Biden Administration, like many before it, is at the center of heated debate over its handling of immigrants and refugees who arrive at our southern border. Legal challenges from the states of Texas and Missouri have prevented it from ending a Trump administration policy that forced asylum seekers to wait outside our nation’s borders for their claims to be processed. Public-service providers are struggling to meet the needs of large influxes of refugees from Afghanistan, Venezuela, and Ukraine. Refugee influxes from Haiti, Cuba and Nicaragua all continue to pose distinct logistical and political challenges. Immigrants are arriving at our nation’s southern border in record numbers, with the number of migrants attempting to cross every day projected to rise as high as 14,000 in the coming months.
As the world community ponders how to respond to staggering humanitarian need posed by people fleeing persecution and violence, the United States confronts the basic question: What’s the right thing to do?
Come hear that question tackled by Paul Grussendorf, a leading expert on refugee law who will take the Profs and Pints stage to offer a primer on the basics of U.S. and international law dealing with our nation's conduct in such matters. He'll discuss the development and language of the UN Refugee Convention and the United States' adoption of the UN refugee standard into American law. And he’ll cover relevant issues pertaining to immigration—both legal and illegal—and the challenges posed by surging numbers at our southern border.
Along with formerly directing George Washington University’s immigration law clinic, Grussendorf has served as an immigration law judge, writing the critically acclaimed memoir My Trials based on his experiences. He also has worked for the U.S. government’s refugee settlement agency and for the U.N. Refugee Agency, most recently at a U.N. refugee camp in Rwanda. Hearing him speak will give you an understanding of refugee law and policy and, perhaps, more empathy of those who have found themselves having to flee their homes. (Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later. Please allow yourself time to place any orders and get seated and settled in.)
Image: Seekers of asylum in the U.S. remain in Mexico in January 2020 under a Trump administration policy. Photo by the office of U.S. Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick/Wikimedia Commons