Professor Cooper, student Karen Pedraza among panelists for immigration policy event

During an immigration policy discussion at which she was joined by Professor Holly Cooper, student Karen Pedraza, Class of '20, presented findings from a visit to children’s tent camps in Texas.

Pedraza, a volunteer at King Hall’s Immigration Law Clinic, recently traveled to Tornillo, Texas, where about 1,500 children were detained in a tent city 30 miles from El Paso. She and her colleagues inspected the detention center, met with children, investigated fingerprint delays, and researched whether  the conditions violated the Flores Settlement agreement.

Professor Cooper, '98, co-director of the Immigration Law Clinic, has extensive litigation experience defending the rights of immigrants and is a nationally recognized expert on immigration detention issues and on the immigration consequences of criminal convictions.

The panel discussion Feb. 12 was sponsored by the Asian/Pacific Bar Association  and was held at McGeorge School of Law. Also on the panel was Satsuki Ina, who has a psychiatry practice specializing in the treatment of community trauma and who was born at Tule Lake Segregation Center  during World War II.

The panel was moderated by Professor Blake Nordahl, supervisor of the McGeorge Immigration Law Clinic.