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Immigration law expert to speak at
Mount St. Mary’s University

Victor Romero, a professor at Penn State’s Dickinson School of Law, will discuss immigration law at Mount St. Mary’s University on September 7, 2004. The lecture, which is sponsored by the Mount’s Pre-Law Society, will take place at 7:00 p.m. in Laughlin Auditorium on the Mount campus. It is free and open to the public.

As a naturalized Filipino-American, Romero will share with the audience some personal stories of why he became interested in immigrant rights' work, the theoretical complexity of this work and the practical opportunities for advocacy within and outside a career in the law. In brief, Romero asserts that there exists a "constitutional immigration law paradox" in American society: On the one hand, the Constitution specifically acknowledges a division between U.S. citizens and non citizens (foreign students, tourists, immigrants, and the like), while simultaneously aspiring to provide every person, regardless of citizenship, due process and equal protection of the laws. Romero’s theoretical and practical approaches to immigrant rights are based on a desire to strike a fair balance between these two constitutional norms.

Born in the Philippines, Romero came to the United States in 1984 as a foreign student at Swarthmore College. Following a year as a litigation paralegal at an East Coast law firm, he began law school at the University of Southern California. Unfortunately, his studies were interrupted when his request to renew his student visa was denied, but he later returned to USC to complete his legal education.

After working in private practice and as a law clerk to a federal judge in California, Romero was hired by Penn State’s Dickinson School of Law, where he now teaches and publishes in the area of immigrant and minority rights. He is co-editor of the anthology, "Immigration and the Constitution," and has published many journal articles and essays. His current book, "Alienated: Immigrant Rights, the Constitution, and Equality in America," will be published by NYU Press later this year. Romero serves the community as president of the South Central Pennsylvania Chapter of the ACLU and as former president of the NAACP of the Greater Carlisle Area.

For more information about this talk or the Mount’s Pre-Law Society, please contact Marcia McKinley, J.D., Ph.D. at 301-447-5394.

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