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On March 31, 2006, the University of Oregon School of Law sponsored an important event to address Immigration and Security issues. Speakers from across the United States were featured. Professor Steven Binder from the University of Oregon School of Law.

 

"Re-Burdening the White Man (and the Rest of Us): National Security and Race Viewed from Within the Empire" Reception in the Morse Commons Immediately Following Roundtable    Roberto Lovato Writer, Pacific News Service Roberto Lovato is the 2003 George Washington Williams Fellow for Independent Media, under the Independent Press Association. Lovato's essays on issues of race, immigration, foreign policy, and American politics have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Salon, The Nation, La Opinion, and other national and international media. Lovato founded the Central American Studies Program at California State University - Northridge, the first Central American Studies program in the United States. Before his recent move to Brooklyn, Lovato regularly taught courses on Latina/o immigration at California State University - Los Angeles. He is currently conducting research for a book on Ronald Reagan.    Steven Bender James and Ilene Hershner Professor and Director of Portland Programs, University of Oregon School of Law Steven W. Bender spent five years practicing real estate law at the Phoenix-based business law firm of Lewis and Roca. He is the co-author of a casebook on real estate transactions, a national treatise on real estate financing, and a book on Latino stereotypes titled Greasers and Gringos: Latinos, Law, and the American Imagination (NYU Press 2003) and is currently working on a new text of Street Law for Latina/os. Bender previously served as co-director of the law school's Center for Law and Entrepreneurship.    Shaul Cohen Associate Professor, Geography, University of Oregon Shaul Cohen's work in political and cultural geography focuses on the interface between power and the environment and on questions of ethnicity and territory. This work focuses on Gramscian hegemony and discourses of nature, largely pursued in relation to tree planting and forest issues. His work on ethnicity and territory concentrates on the Israel-Palestine conflict. Professor Cohen is an active member of the UO Concerned Faculty for Peace and Justice.    Ibrahim Hamide Owner and Chef, Cafe Soriah and Peace Activist Ibrahim Hamide, a Eugene restaurateur of Palestinian heritage, immigrated to the United States in 1969 at age 18. He is a tireless activist on issues of war, peace, and justice, including issues of concern in the Middle East and in the post 9/11 world. Hamide has been in the restaurant business for more than 25 years, and is known as the "father of Middle Eastern food in Eugene," especially for the critically-acclaimed Café Soriah.    Raquel Hecht Founding Partner, Hecht & Smith LLP, Oregon Immigration Attorneys Raquel Hecht received her J.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1993. She has practiced immigration law in the state of Oregon ever since. Hecht, who teaches Immigration Law at the University of Oregon School of Law, is fluent in five languages and semi-fluent in four more. She has worked with Centro LatinoAmericano to provide job skills, jobs outreach and legal aid intake services to Latina/o clients.    Ramon Ramirez President, PCUN (Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste); President, CAUSA, Oregon's Immigrant Rights Organization Ramon Ramirez has worked on immigrant rights/farmworker issues for over 25 years. In addition to his leadership duties with PCUN, Oregon's farmworker union, and CAUSA, a statewide immigrant rights coalition, Ramirez is President of Western State Center's board of directors and serves on the board of directors of the Farmworker Housing Development Corporation and Mano a Mano Family Center.    Magdaleno Rose-Avila Executive Director, Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, Seattle The son of immigrant parents and one of 12 children, Magdaleno Rose-Avila began his working life in the onion fields of southeast Colorado at the early age of 11. He was a leading voice and figure in the Chicano Movement of the 1960's and '70's and ran for public office for La Raza Unida Party. Rose-Avila holds a degree in communications from University of Colorado in Boulder. In addition to his leadership of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, Rose-Avila is advocates for the abolition of the death penalty. He is an accomplished poet and is the author of Looking for My Wings.

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