The year 2020 marks the 35th anniversary of Justice Marshall’s pioneering dissent in Jean, wherein he sought to extend the guarantee of equal protection to Haitian asylum seekers detained around the United States. The opening panel reflected on Jean, examined how it heralded and influenced contemporary efforts to secure racial justice for Haitian immigrants through litigation, and discussed the deleterious impact that the United States’s immigration policies have had upon Haitian immigrants over the decades. The panel featured Ira Kurzban and Irwin Stotzky, who represented the petitioners before the Court; Muzaffar Chishti, the former Secretary-Treasurer of the National Coalition for Haitian Refugees; and Ninaj Raoul, a Haitian activist who has long worked with Haitian immigrants around the country. 

Panelists

Ira Kurzban, Attorney and Partner, Kurzban, Kurzban, Weinger, Tetzeli, & Pratt P.A.

Irwin P. Stotzky, Professor of Law, University of Miami School of Law

Ninaj Raoul, Founder and Executive Director, Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees

Muzaffar Chishti, Director, Migration Policy Institute’s Office at NYU School of Law

Moderator: Raymond Audain, Senior Counsel, The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.

For Justice Marshall, it was incumbent on the Court to dispel the legal fiction that the petitioners were beyond the reach of the Constitution. For him, that same insidious fiction supported the myth that “freed slaves were not ‘people of the United States.’” Although the Jean majority failed to address this issue, the Trump administration’s racialized immigration policies—including its efforts to revoke DACA, DED, and TPS—are forcing courts to grapple with it anew. Its policies are also forcing lawyers to employ new litigation strategies to combat the administration’s overt attacks against immigrants of color. This panel brought together lawyers litigating the various DACA, DED and TPS cases around the country to discuss the state of the court struggle for racial justice in immigration.

Panelists

Maryum Jordan, Staff Attorney, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law

Oren Nimni, Staff Attorney, Lawyers for Civil Rights

Michael J. Wishnie, William O. Douglas Clinical Professor of Law, Yale Law School 

Moderator: Karen C. Tumlin, Founder and Director, Justice Action Center

Sherrilyn Ifill, President and Director-Counsel, The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc

in conversation with
Kevin R. Johnson, Dean, UC Davis School of Law

Moderator: Gemma Solimene, Clinical Associate Professor of Law, Fordham University School of Law

In many respects, Jean demonstrates the limits of litigation to secure racial justice for immigrants of color. Throughout history, activists and community organizations have enabled social change, working alongside lawyers to address racial injustice in immigration. This remains true today, as the administration’s policies continue to exacerbate the racial harms experienced by immigrant communities of color. This panel explored the state of the struggle from a community perspective, and discussed effective strategies for lawyers to provide greater support to immigrant communities. 

Panelists

Marleine Bastien, Executive Director, Haitian Women of Miami, Inc.

Gregoria Flores, Executive Director, Garifuna Community Services with New York Mennonite Immigration Program

Nana Gyamfi, Executive Director, Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI)

Amaha Kassa, Founder and Executive Director, African Communities Together (ACT)

Moderator: Alina Das, Professor of Clinical Law, NYU School of Law

Jean demonstrates how the steps towards equal protection for immigrants of color begin with intersectional coalition building and cross-sectoral alliances. These alliances must be formed across racial lines, across expertise, across movements, and across international borders. This concluding panel sought to model this format, bringing together panelists who work in civil rights, racial justice, criminal justice, immigrant rights, and international human rights to discuss their respective approaches to coalition building to advance racial justice for immigrants of color. In doing so, the panelists explored approaches and strategies to reimagine immigrant racial justice.

Panelists

E. Tendayi Achiume, Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law; UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance 

Iván Espinoza-Madrigal, Executive Director, Lawyers for Civil Rights

Guerline M. Jozef, President, Haitian Bridge Alliance

Samah Sisay, Bertha Justice Fellow, Center for Constitutional Rights 

Moderator: Gabrielle Apollon, Supervising Attorney, Global Justice Clinic at NYU Law; Deputy Director, Global Justice Clinic Haiti Project