Recognizing Refugees Conference

When President Obama declared a "humanitarian crisis" on the border last summer, global attention turned to the plight of thousands of unaccompanied immigrant children from Central America, seeking safety in the United States. Lost in the din of emergency relief and immigration politics was the fact that thousands of adults arrived from the same places, their arrival cut against the general downward trend in unauthorized migration, and most of the aggressive policy responses had been tried and failed during the last Central American refugee crisis, in the 1980s. How is the current refugee crisis in the region related to past refugee crises and other policies stemming from civil war, foreign intervention, and authoritarianism? How should this affect our policy response right now?

Featuring: Susan Gzesh, Executive Director, Human Rights Program, The University of Chicago (Chicago, IL)Dr. Olivia Ruiz, Department of Anthropology, Colegio de la Frontera Norte (Tijuana, B.C.)Dr. David Pedersen, Department of Anthropology, UCSD

Mexico and Central America are in the grips of a suffocating civil conflict in which local communities have been overtaken by organized crime, impunity has become the norm rather than the exception, and spectacular violence has terrorized civil society. Journalists, human rights activists, and student protestors have been targeted for threats, torture, and execution; protestors have been kidnapped and disappeared; and honest officials have been threatened and killed for doing their jobs. Tens of thousands have fled, seeking safety in the United States and elsewhere. And yet, the grant rate for asylum seekers remains abysmally low – 4.7% in 2014, a level that matches the worst periods of the Central American civil wars of the 1980s. What factors account for the relatively low grant rate for asylum seekers from Mexico and Central America in the United States, and how might we improve it?

Featuring: Dr. Ariadna Estévez, Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Méxcio; Dr. Everard Meade, Director, Trans-Border Institute

Edward Said once wrote: “exile is strangely compelling to think about but terrible to experience. It is the unhealable rift forced between a human being and a native place, between the self and its true home: its essential sadness can never be surmounted.” What is it like to be a refugee from a place as familiar and connected to the United States as Mexico or El Salvador? How does receiving asylum or immigration status affect this experience or the perception of subsequent crises? What can asylees and refugees teach us about the current regional crisis and the policy response to it?

Featuring: a series of individuals from Mexico and Central America who have received political asylum in the United States, relating their experiences in their own words. *In the interest of protecting their privacy, we are withholding their names.

Panel #4 – Reframing Persecution: Legal Challenges and Strategies for Representing Asylum Seekers from Mexico and Central America

Given the extremely low grant rate for asylum seekers from Mexico and Central America, what are the biggest challenges to effectively representing asylum seekers from these countries in their legal proceedings? Beyond the overall rant rate, where do we see policy prerogatives and prejudices creeping into the adjudication of cases? For those ineligible or unable to meet the high evidentiary standards for asylum, what alternative protections during the arrival, transit, and/or repatriation of migrants should be implemented at the regional, national, and local levels?

Featuring attorneys and representatives from: Mexicanos en Exilio (El Paso, TX); National Immigrant Justice Center (Chicago, IL); The Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Center (Florence, AZ); The ABA’s South Texas Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project (Harlingen, TX); and Casa Cornelia Law Center (San Diego, CA).

Strategy Session for Lawyers Representing Asylum Seekers from Mexico and Central America (* Closed to the Public)

Immigration status and humanitarian succor are important stopgaps to local conflicts and persecution, not permanent solutions. What policies have proved the most effective at reducing the violence and insecurity that force people to flee, and how can we replicate and scale them up locally, nationally, and regionally? Why have locally successful programs, such as truces between street gangs not been expanded or replicated at the national and regional levels?

Featuring: Alex Sánchez, Executive Director, Homies Unidos (Los Angeles, CA)Dr. Topher McDougal, Kroc School of Peace Studies;Steve Vigil, former UN PeacekeeperAna Isabel García, Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies, UCSD

"It Was the State" has been the clarion call of protest against corruption and violence in Mexico, since the disappearance of the 43 students from Ayotzinapá, Guerrero. The connection between local officials and drug traffickers and the responsibility of the government to bring justice are plain enough. But, the manifestations of “the state” and the logic of violence in the present conflict defy conventional definitions of corruption or contract enforcement in a black market. This panel will explore what we can do to better disaggregate the actors most responsible, and the strategies which will likely prove the most effective in mitigating violence, bringing justice to victims and survivors, and preventing mass displacement.

Featuring: Dr. Douglas Carranza, Director, Central American Studies Program, CSU NorthridgeOctavio Rodríguez, Justice in Mexico Project, USDGema Santamaría, Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies, UCSDDr. Michael Lettieri, Affiliated Fellow, Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies, UCSD

Keynote Lecture: (public event)

Exclusion, Past and Present: 
Can human rights really protect migrants and refugees? What would Hannah Arendt say?

Susan Gzesh, Executive Director, Pozen Family Center for Human Rights
Senior Lecturer in the College, The University of Chicago

Register

When President Obama declared a "humanitarian crisis" on the border last summer, global attention turned to the plight of thousands of unaccompanied immigrant children from Central America, seeking safety in the United States. Lost in the din of emergency relief and immigration politics was the fact that thousands of adults arrived from the same places, their arrival cut against the general downward trend in unauthorized migration, and most of the aggressive policy responses had been tried and failed during the last Central American refugee crisis, in the 1980s. How is the current refugee crisis in the region related to past refugee crises and other policies stemming from civil war, foreign intervention, and authoritarianism? How should this affect our policy response right now?

Featuring: Susan Gzesh, Executive Director, Human Rights Program, The University of Chicago (Chicago, IL)Dr. Olivia Ruiz, Department of Anthropology, Colegio de la Frontera Norte (Tijuana, B.C.)Dr. David Pedersen, Department of Anthropology, UCSD

Mexico and Central America are in the grips of a suffocating civil conflict in which local communities have been overtaken by organized crime, impunity has become the norm rather than the exception, and spectacular violence has terrorized civil society. Journalists, human rights activists, and student protestors have been targeted for threats, torture, and execution; protestors have been kidnapped and disappeared; and honest officials have been threatened and killed for doing their jobs. Tens of thousands have fled, seeking safety in the United States and elsewhere. And yet, the grant rate for asylum seekers remains abysmally low – 4.7% in 2014, a level that matches the worst periods of the Central American civil wars of the 1980s. What factors account for the relatively low grant rate for asylum seekers from Mexico and Central America in the United States, and how might we improve it?

Featuring: Dr. Ariadna Estévez, Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Méxcio; Dr. Everard Meade, Director, Trans-Border Institute

Edward Said once wrote: “exile is strangely compelling to think about but terrible to experience. It is the unhealable rift forced between a human being and a native place, between the self and its true home: its essential sadness can never be surmounted.” What is it like to be a refugee from a place as familiar and connected to the United States as Mexico or El Salvador? How does receiving asylum or immigration status affect this experience or the perception of subsequent crises? What can asylees and refugees teach us about the current regional crisis and the policy response to it?

Featuring: a series of individuals from Mexico and Central America who have received political asylum in the United States, relating their experiences in their own words. *In the interest of protecting their privacy, we are withholding their names.

Panel #4 – Reframing Persecution: Legal Challenges and Strategies for Representing Asylum Seekers from Mexico and Central America

Given the extremely low grant rate for asylum seekers from Mexico and Central America, what are the biggest challenges to effectively representing asylum seekers from these countries in their legal proceedings? Beyond the overall rant rate, where do we see policy prerogatives and prejudices creeping into the adjudication of cases? For those ineligible or unable to meet the high evidentiary standards for asylum, what alternative protections during the arrival, transit, and/or repatriation of migrants should be implemented at the regional, national, and local levels?

Featuring attorneys and representatives from: Mexicanos en Exilio (El Paso, TX); National Immigrant Justice Center (Chicago, IL); The Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Center (Florence, AZ); The ABA’s South Texas Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project (Harlingen, TX); and Casa Cornelia Law Center (San Diego, CA).

Immigration status and humanitarian succor are important stopgaps to local conflicts and persecution, not permanent solutions. What policies have proved the most effective at reducing the violence and insecurity that force people to flee, and how can we replicate and scale them up locally, nationally, and regionally? Why have locally successful programs, such as truces between street gangs not been expanded or replicated at the national and regional levels?

Featuring: Alex Sánchez, Executive Director, Homies Unidos (Los Angeles, CA)Dr. Topher McDougal, Kroc School of Peace Studies;Steve Vigil, former UN PeacekeeperAna Isabel García, Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies, UCSD