Evening Forum: The Future of United States Immigration Policy

Moderator

Dennis McCuistion a former bank CEO who consults with financial institutions and other businesses on top management issues. He facilitates strategic planning sessions, offers advice on financial and leadership issues and serves as an objective sounding board to CEOs and board members. Mr. McCuistion serves on the Board and Audit Committees of two New York Stock Exchange companies, and is the author of "The Prevention and Collection of Problem Loans," co-author of "Selling Strategies for Today's Banker: A Survival Guide for Tomorrow" and "The Seven Challenges Facing Bankers in the Future...and How to Meet Them," and has featured chapters in "The Winning Spirit: Achieving Olympic-Level Performance in Business and Personal Advancements" and "Inspiring Others to Win." He is the host and executive producer of the award-winning McCuistion Program on Public Television.

Panelists

Lee H. Hamilton is president and director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and director of The Center on Congress at Indiana University. Hamilton represented Indiana's 9th congressional district for 34 years beginning January 1965. He served as chairman and ranking member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, chaired the Subcommittee on Europe and the Middle East, the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the Select Committee to Investigate Covert Arms Transactions with Iran, the Joint Economic Committee, and the Joint Committee on the Organization of Congress. As a member of the House Standards of Official Conduct Committee Hamilton was a primary draftsman of several House ethics reforms. He served as co-chair of the Iraq Study Group, a forward looking, bi-partisan assessment of the situation in Iraq, created at the urging of Congress. He served as Vice-Chair of the 9/11 Commission and co-chaired the 9/11 Public Discourse Project established to monitor implementation of the Commission's recommendations. During the Bush Administration, he was a member of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, the President's Homeland Security Advisory Council, the FBI Director's Advisory Board, the CIA Director's Economic Intelligence Advisory Panel, the Defense Secretary's National Security Study Group, and the US Department of Homeland Security Task Force on Preventing the Entry of Weapons of Mass Effect on American Soil. In addition, he was co-chair of the Independent Task Force on US Immigration. Wilson Center website IU Center on Congress website

Benjamin Johnson has been Executive Director of the American Immigration Law Foundation (AILF) since June 2007. Prior to that, he was Director of AILF's Immigration Policy Center since February 2003. Mr. Johnson has written extensively on immigration law and policy, and has appeared on National Public Radio, Fox News, BBC World News, and other television and radio programs. In 1994, Mr. Johnson co-founded and served as the Director of the Immigration Outreach Center in Phoenix, Arizona. In 1999, he joined the staff of the American Immigration Lawyers Association as Associate Director of Advocacy, where he worked with the US Federal Government on a wide variety of immigration-related issues. Prior to his work on immigration issues, he worked as a criminal and civil trial attorney in San Diego, California. Mr. Johnson is a graduate of the University of San Diego School of Law and studied international and comparative law at Kings College in London. AILF website

Mark Krikorian has been Executive Director of the Center for Immigration Studies since 1995. He holds a master's degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, a bachelor's degree from Georgetown University, and spent two years at Yerevan State University in then-Soviet Armenia. Before joining the Center, he held a variety of editorial and writing positions. He is author of "The New Case Against Immigration, Both Legal and Illegal." Center for Immigration Studies website

Rodolfo Rosales is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the Universtiy of Texas at San Antonio. He teaches urban politics, political philosophy, and Chicana/Chicano Politics and is the author of "The Illusion of Inclusion: The Untold Political Story of San Antonio," University of Texas Press, 2000. His current research focuses on three areas. One is a an extension of his study of San Antonio in an edited volume on Latinos in the urban environment. The second is a political biography of Albert Pena, Jr., a political activist in South Texas. The third is a study of citizenship from a transnational perspective. This last project looks at the impact that nation-states and their borders have had on the ability of workers to negotiate their participation in a political economy that recognizes no borders.