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.
