Refugees in Our Backyard
by Alberto Muro
On Feb 5 director of the Levan Center for the Humanities Jack Hernandez hosted an open panel discussion called “Refugees in our Backyard”. As a sponsor of the event Hernandez kicked things off by welcoming everybody to the facility and discussed the purpose of the panel.
He then introduced the three key speakers with expertise on laws regarding immigration.
Asylum claims
Associate Director of the Immigration Law Clinic Holly Cooper brought with her law students Anita Barooni and Amanda Whitney to cover topics such as immigration policies, the foundation of detention centers, and the differences between migrants and refugees.
Holly Cooper started the panel by discussing her roles as an attorney for immigrants, and has met with detainees that are in custody. “I was disgusted by the ethical treatment of detainees” she says.
preparing to discuss the differences between migrants and refugees
Next, Barooni began her discussion by informing the audience about three events that have triggered a massive migration. She says “currently there are three notable events such as the European Crisis, the influx of central American children in 2014, and the African situation where war lords are causing people to flee.”
She then followed up with explaining the difference between migrants and refugees.
“Migrants are people that make a conscious decision to leave their country of origin, while a refugee is someone that is compelled to leave due to threat” she said.
discussion about the privatizing of detention centers.
After Barooni’s presentation, Whitney talked about the privatization of detention centers. She pulled up the statistics showing that in 2002 there were a total of 4,841 detainees held in privately owned detention centers and since 2010 that number has gone up to 14,814.
Whitney voiced her concerns about privately owned detention centers. “privatization increases incentives to detain immigrants and establish more punitive immigration laws” she says.
At the end of the panel the key speakers then answered any questions pertaining to the subject of immigration. Also the panel discussion shined a light on the current migration crisis.