W&L Law Review’s Annual Symposium to Explore Immigration-Related Executive Orders The 2017-2018 Lara D. Gass Symposium will feature a diverse collection of leading scholars and experts on immigration law to discuss emergent legal issues regarding the implementation of the Trump Administration’s policies.

By Mark Dewyea
January 24, 2018

The Washington and Lee Law Review’s annual Lara D. Gass Symposium at the Washington and Lee University School of Law will highlight contemporary issues in immigration law and policy in light of the latest series of Executive Orders issued by President Trump.

The event is scheduled for Feb. 2 in the Millhiser Moot Court Room, Sydney Lewis Hall on the campus of Washington and Lee University. The symposium proceedings are free and open to the public.

“Over the last year, we have witnessed substantial changes in our immigration policies and the exercise of the government’s immigration authority,” said David Baluarte, Associate Clinical Professor of Law and Director, Immigrant Rights Clinic at the Washington and Lee University School of Law, who helped coordinate this year’s symposium. Professor Baluarte noted that “the Executive Orders provide a great framework for examining emergent legal issues related to our shifting immigration policy, which is why I proposed this theme for the symposium.”

The Symposium will feature three panels—composed of individuals whom Baluarte referred to as “the nation’s foremost legal scholars on immigration law”—to engage and explore the plethora of legal implications raised by President Trump’s three immigration-focused Executive Orders (“EO”): “Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements” (EO 13767), “Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States” (EO 13768), and “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States” (EO 13769/13780).

Each panel will convene notable scholars who have dedicated substantial research to one or more of the aforementioned EOs in order to provoke a collaborative analysis of the challenges faced by the current administration in enforcing the policies delineated by the President. The issues to be addressed by the Symposium are particularly relevant in today’s contested political landscape, and they are set to grow in imminence as the administration’s enforcement of its immigration policies encounters resistance from a wide array of interest groups expected to file legal challenges on the local, national, and international levels.

The attendees for this year’s Symposium include:

• Sahar Aziz (Professor of Law, Rutgers Law School)
• Lenni Benson (Professor of Law, New York Law School)
• Ming Hsu Chen (Associate Professor of Law, University of Colorado Law School)
• Nora Demleitner (Roy L. Steinheimer, Jr. Professor of Law, Washington and Lee University School of Law)
• Ingrid Eagly (Professor of Law, University of California, Los Angeles School of Law)
• César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández (Associate Professor of Law, University of Denver Sturm College of Law)
• Daniel Kanstroom (Professor of Law, Boston College Law School)
• Stephen Lee (Professor of Law, University of California, Irvine School of Law)
• Peter Margulies (Professor of Law, Roger Williams University School of Law)
• David Martin (Warner-Booker Distinguished Professor of International Law Emeritus, University of Virginia School of Law)
• Huyen Pham (Professor of Law, Texas A&M University School of Law)
• Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia (Clinical Professor of Law, Penn State Law)

A full schedule is available online. For questions regarding the event, contact Spencer T. Wiles ‘18L at wiles.s@law.wlu.edu.

The Lara D. Gass Symposium is named in honor of Lara Gass, a member of the Law Class of 2014 who passed away in an automobile accident in March of 2014. Gass served as Symposium Editor for the Washington and Lee Law Review, organizing the Law Review’s 2014 symposium focused on the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Lara was active within the Women Law Students Organization and also served as a Kirgis Fellow, the law school’s peer mentoring group, during the 2012–2103 academic year. In January 2014, Lara received recognition for her academic achievements, her leadership abilities, her service to the law school and university community, and her character when she was inducted into Omicron Delta Kappa, the National Leadership Honor Society.

Organized and hosted by the W&L Law Review, this event is sponsored by the Dean’s Office, Washington and Lee University School of Law; the Frances Lewis Law Center, Washington and Lee University School of Law; the Class of ’63 Scholars in Residence, Washington and Lee University; the Class of 1960 Institute for Honor, Washington and Lee University; and the Roger Mudd Center for Ethics, Washington and Lee University.