A Bit of History: The Creation of the AALS Section on Immigration Law

January 25, 2008

Steve Legomsky (Wash U – St. Louis) recently shared a bit of history with his fellow immigration law professors:

Dear friends,

Cleaning out some old files, I happened to stumble on the attached document, Download AALSimmigrationsection.1984.pdf which brought back some wonderful old memories. It was my original 1984 application to the AALS for establishment of a section on immigration law (followed by the AALS approval letter). This was preceded by a petition drive that had netted some 83 signatures of full-time law professors expressing an interest in such a section (or in some cases purporting to express interest – I had to do a little begging, I confess). Jim Nafziger, the then chair of the AALS international law section, had written a very nice supporting letter assuring the AALS that an immigration section would complement, not conflict with, his existing section.

For the first two years, I served as the chairperson, Alex Aleinikoff as the Chairperson-elect, Michael Heyman as the Secretary-Treasurer, and Lucas Guttentag and Bill Ong Hing as the other members of the first executive committee. (All males, I know – we weren’t as sensitive back then as we should have been). At our first meeting as an official section (January 1985), we had 35 attendees. They included such luminaries as the late Atle Grahl–Madsen (Norwegian author of the first major treatise on international refugee law), the late Maurice Roberts (the great BIA chair, great dissenter, and champion of humane treatment of immigrants), and Harold Koh (former Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and now Dean of Yale Law School), as well as the rest of us mere mortals.

Paul Verkuil, Alex Aleinikoff, Dave Martin, and Peter Schuck also played key roles in organizing an initial informal gathering at the previous year’s AALS conference, and the section effort really grew out of that meeting. Among the other old-timers who attended that meeting were Patty Blum, Hiroshi Motomura, Deborah Anker, the late Bill Robie, Maryellen Fullerton, Jeff Lubbers, Valerie Epps, and John Guendelsberger. I thought those who participated would enjoy this nostalgia and that newcomers might find it interesting as well. It certainly brought back nice memories for me of very exciting and collegial times.

Best to all, old and new,

Steve Legomsky

Michael Olivas (Houston) adds:

Success has many fathers, particularly in this immigration patriarchy. Some of the other tired and huddled masses at the January 1985 meeting included 33 year old Michael A. Olivas (Oh LEE vahs), who served on the AALS Committee on Sections and Annual Meetings, and who worked to fast-track the application within the Association and to get the group into the DIRECTORY process even as it was only provisionally-approved. Prior to that time, it took full approval and about 2 additional years to get new Sections onto the printed form that everyone fills out to designate DIRECTORY changes.

Millard Ruud was the key Association supporter, and he mentioned this matter at a meeting of the Committee on Sections and Annual Meetings, and urged me to help this new group. (Jane LaBarbera, incidentally, is still with the Association after all these years.)

All in all, it has been a great run for the Section all these years, and we owe a great debt to all these Jurassic Park folks.

MAO