Professor Daniel Kanstroom, dean’s distinguished scholar at Boston College Law School and former faculty director of the Rappaport Center for Law & Public Policy, spoke on a panel hosted by the Institute for Liberal Arts addressing the past, present, and future of immigration. Kanstroom and fellow panelists highlighted the threat due process is under and the significance of the executive branch overstepping its legal role, leading to Kanstroom’s question, “Is there such a thing as immigration law anymore, or is it simply an arbitrary system of power?”
The panelists referenced personal experience in border cities and spoke to the brutality of the treatment of migrants. Despite the complex and problematic history of immigration policy, the panelists generally agreed that no regime could overcome the basic values of decency toward others that still dominate the United States, and offered suggestions for how to move forward and support migrant communities.
BC Law was a co-sponsor of the conference, “Law, Conscience, and Migration Today.” Other panelists included Mario Russell, the executive director of the Center for Migration Studies of New York; Maryanne Loughry, a senior advisor on Jesuit Refugee Service at BC’s Office of Global Engagement; and Alejandro Olayo-Méndez, S.J., assistant professor at BC’s Graduate School of Social Work.
Read more at BC Heights