Nationally renowned immigration experts, judges, practitioners, academics, and former detainees will speak at the all-day conference “Immigrant Detainees: Alone, Unrepresented & Imprisoned,” to be held at Rutgers School of Law–Newark from 8 am until 5:30 pm on Friday, March 23, 2012. U.S. Senator Robert Menendez ’79 will deliver the keynote address.

The full conference brochure, which includes the day’s schedule and biographies of the speakers, can be found at http://www.law.newark.rutgers.edu/immigrant-detainees. The conference is free and open to the public; however pre-registration through the conference website is required.

Panel sessions include: Immigration Incarceration (a look at the realities of immigration detention), Mandatory Detention: Impact, Alternatives & Paths to Reform, Access to Justice for Detainees in Immigration Proceedings, and A Call to Action: Promoting Pro Bono Representation in Immigration Proceedings.

Confirmed panelists include:

• Hon. Michael Chagares, Third Circuit Court of Appeals
• Professor Alice Clapman, University of Baltimore School of Law
• Professor Alina Das, NYU Law School
• Semuteh Freeman and Lauren Major, Law Students, NYU Law Immigrant Rights Clinic
• Professor Betsy Ginsberg, Cardozo Law School
• Amy Gottlieb, Esq., American Friends Service Committee
• Professor Anju Gupta, Rutgers–Newark Law School
• Warren Joseph, Families for Freedom
• Hon. Robert Katzmann, Second Circuit Court of Appeals
• Lynn Kelly, Esq., NY City Bar Justice Center
• Lawrence S. Lustberg, Esq., Gibbons PC
• Professor Lori Nessel, Seton Hall Law School
• Judy Rabinovitz, Esq., ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project
• Ravi Ragbir, Families for Freedom
• Silky Shah, Detention Watch Network
• Annie Sovcik, Esq., Human Rights First
• Catherine Weiss, Esq., Lowenstein Sandler LLC
• Seth Wessler, Investigative Reporter, Colorlines
• Amelia Wilson, Esq., American Friends Service Committee

The conference is a joint effort by the Rutgers–Newark, Seton Hall, Cardozo, and New York University law schools. Co-sponsors are: Lowenstein Sandler PC, Gibbons PC, Rutgers Committee to Advance Our Common Purposes, Rutgers–Newark Center for Migration and the Global City, Cardozo Immigration Justice Clinic, Rutgers Immigrant Rights Collective, Rutgers Human Rights Forum, Seton Hall Law Center for Social Justice, NYU School of Law Immigrant Rights Clinic, American Friends Service Committee, and Human Rights First.