Philip Schrag, a prominent law professor at Georgetown University, will discuss a comprehensive study on the asylum adjudication process in the United States at a presentation to be held at the University of New Mexico School of Law on Feb. 11 at 5:30 p.m. Schrag will discuss his findings, which reveal significant disparities in asylum decisions in the United States, even among different adjudicators in the same office considering nationals of the same country.
Photo: Philip Schrag
He will also explore correlations between sociological characteristics of individual immigration judges and their grant rates, the consequences of Attorney General John Ashcroft’s reforms of the Board of Immigration Appeals, and disparities in asylum adjudication by judges of the U.S. courts of appeal.
Assisting Schrag on the study were Jaya Ramji-Nogales, assistant professor at Temple University’s Beasley School of Law and Andrew Schoenholtz, deputy director of the Georgetown University Institute for the Study of International Migration. Their findings were featured in the Nov. 2007 issue of the Stanford Law Review in an article titled, “Refugee Roulette: Disparities in Asylum Adjudication.”
Schrag is the director of the Center for Applied Legal Studies at Georgetown University, where students, under professional supervision, represent refugees from religious and political persecution who are seeking asylum in the United States. He also directs the Public Interest Law Scholars Program, where students receive special academic enrichment as they prepare for careers as public interest and government lawyers. He teaches courses in civil procedure, administrative law, legislation and advocacy. Schrag is author of a book on asylum and refugee issues to be published in 2008, titled “Asylum Denied: A Refugee’s Struggle for Safety in America.”
Members of the State Bar of New Mexico may earn 1.5 CLE professionalism credits for attending the lecture. The cost of the lecture for CLE students is $29 in advance and $39 at the door. The lecture is free if not attended for credit.
For more information, contact Claire Conrad at 277-0080 or conrad@law.unm.edu.
Media Contact: Benson Hendrix, (505) 277-1816; e-mail: bhendrix@unm.edu
Posted by scarr at January 24, 2008 01:05 PM