At a panel discussion on February 15, 2005, Maria Echaveste ’80 joined other immigration experts exploring such hot-button issues as the recent passage by the U.S. House of Representatives of the Real ID Act, which is expected to bar states from issuing driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants. Echaveste is the cofounder of Nueva Vista Group, a consulting firm in Washington, D.C., and the former deputy chief of staff to President Bill Clinton.
Panelists touched on difficult questions surrounding recent legislation, human rights, employment needs and the “crisis of citizenship in California,” where undocumented immigrants comprise an estimated 6.5 percent of the population. Sponsored by Boalt’s Center for Social Justice, the discussion of Current Immigration Challenges also featured Tom Saenz, vice president of litigation at the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and a Boalt practitioner in residence; Hinda Seif, a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Latino Policy Research; and Andres Jimenez, director of the California Policy Research Center.