GOVERNMENT POLICY
Immigration: Legislation dies, debate thrives

IN THE NORTHEAST
• Peggy Levitt is an associate professor of sociology at Wellesley College in Wellesley, Mass., and an expert in the nexis of religion and migration. She wrote an article, “You Know, Abraham Was Really the First Immigrant: Religion and Transnational Migration” for the International Migration Review in 2003. Contact 781-283-2186, plevitt@wellesley.edu.
• George J. Borjas is the Robert W. Scrivner Professor of Economics and Social Policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. An immigrant from Cuba, he is the author of Heaven’s Door: Immigration Policy and the American Economy and supports restrictions on immigration. He explained his personal history and views on immigration reform in a 1996 Wall Street Journal story posted by the Kennedy School of Government. Contact 617-495-1393, gborjas@harvard.edu.
• Thomas W. Ogletree is a professor of theological ethics at Yale Divinity School in New Haven, Conn. He wrote a 1998 article, “Recreating America: The Ethics of US Immigration Policy in a Christian Perspective,” for the Journal of the American Academy of Religion. Contact 203-432-5337, thomas.ogletree@yale.edu.

IN THE EAST
• Ada María Isasi-Díaz is professor of ethics and theology at Drew University in New Jersey. She is a leading voice in the area of mujerista theology, Latinas and justice issues. Contact 973-408-3269, aisasidi@drew.edu.
• Mark J. Miller, a professor of political science and international relations at the University of Delaware, is editor of the International Migration Review. That quarterly review is published by the Center for Migration Studies in New York, which studies human migration and refugee movements. Contact 302-831-1926, mjmiller@udel.edu.
• Sean Mariano Garcia is a senior associate specializing in Mexico and Brazil with the Latin America Working Group, based in Washington, D.C. That nonprofit coalition – including religious groups ranging from Jews to Quakers to Unitarians to Mennonites – encourages the U.S. to develop policies toward Latin America that promote human rights, justice and peace. Garcia says faith-based communities are becoming more involved in the immigration debate, and need to involve evangelicals in the conversation – including Latino evangelicals. Contact 202-546-7010, sgarcia@lawg.org.
• Douglas S. Massey is a professor of sociology and public affairs at Princeton University. He also is co-director of the Mexican Migration Project, which compiles a year-by-year history of Mexican migration to the United States based on interviews with migrants. He wrote a paper on U.S.-Mexican border policy published in September 2005 by the Immigration Policy Center of the American Immigration Law Foundation, in which he argues that “punitive immigration and border policies tend to backfire.” He is co-author of Beyond Smoke and Mirrors: Mexican Immigration in an Era of Economic Integration. Contact 609-258-4949, dmassey@princeton.edu.
• Joseph Nevins is an assistant professor of geography at Vassar College. He is the author of Operation Gatekeeper: The Rise of the “Illegal Alien” and the Making of the U.S.-Mexico Boundary. Nevins wrote in the Christian Science Monitor in August 2005 that at least 3,000 migrants had died crossing the Arizona desert in the previous decade — and that the deaths would continue unless immigration policy changed (the article is posted by CommonDreams.org). Contact 845-437-7823, jonevins@vassar.edu.
• Daniel J. Tichenor is a research professor at the Eagleton Institute of Politics and assistant professor of political science at Rutgers University. He wrote the book Dividing Lines: The Politics of Immigration Control in America. Contact 732-932-9384 ext. 283, tichen@rci.rutgers.edu.

IN THE SOUTHEAST
• Héctor Fernández L’Hoeste is associate chairman of the modern and classical languages department and director of the Center for Latin American and Latino/a Studies at Georgia State University. Contact 404-651-2265, Fernandez@gsu.edu.
• Nolo Martinez is assistant director for research and outreach at the Center for New North Carolinians. The University of North Carolina at Greensboro created the center in 2001 to deal with immigrant issues, in a state that’s seen a 400 percent increase in Hispanic population between 1990 and 2000. Contact 336-256-1061, nolomartinez@hotmail.com.
• Emilio A. Parrado is an assistant professor of sociology at Duke University. He has done research on the impact of immigration both on communities in the United States and in Mexico, including the responses of public schools to rising numbers of Hispanic students. Contact 919-660-5777, eparrado@soc.duke.edu.

IN THE SOUTH
• David Coffey is an associate professor of agricultural education at Western Kentucky University. He has studied the impact of Latino immigration on Kentucky’s economy — the number of Hispanics in the area has tripled, he says — and has taught Spanish to Kentucky farmers and English to recent immigrants who work in restaurants, in the fields and roofing houses. Contact 270-745-5065, david.coffey@wku.edu.
• Hernan Prado is founder and president of the Alabama Latin American Association. Since 1990, according to a 2004 series in the Birmingham Post-Herald, Alabama has seen an explosion in its Hispanic population, and a report released in July 2005 by the Pew Hispanic Center found that the Hispanic population is growing faster in the South than anywhere else in the U.S. Contact 205-951-0255, hprado@alasweb.org.

IN THE MIDWEST
• Timothy Miller is a historian of American religion in the religious studies department at the University of Kansas. His expertise is in new and alternative religions, and he has written about the impact of the influx of Eastern spirituality after the 1965 immigration reform act. Contact 785-864-7263, tkansas@ku.edu.
• The Rev. Daniel Groody is an assistant professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame and director of the Center for Latino Spirituality and Culture at the university’s Institute for Latino Studies. He helped produce a documentary film called Dying to Live: A Migrant’s Journey and has spent time along the U.S.-Mexico border interviewing migrants about their spiritual lives. He wrote the book Border of Death, Valley of Life: An Immigrant Journey of Heart and Spirit. Contact 574-631-3233, dgroody@nd.edu.
• Luis Alberto Urrea, a poet, essayist and native of Tijuana, was a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction for his book The Devil’s Highway: A True Story. The book chronicles the attempt 26 Mexican men made in May 2001 to cross the desert into southern Arizona. Only 12 survived. Urrea also is a professor of creative writing at the University of Illinois-Chicago. Contact luisurrea@luisurrea.com or through Carolyn O’Keefe at Little, Brown, 212-522-1188, Carolyn.okeefe@twbg.com.
• Joshua Hoyt is executive director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, which supports comprehensive immigration reform, including family reunification and a path to citizenship for undocumented workers. Its 120 members include Muslim, Christian, Jewish and interfaith organizations. Contact 312-332-7360 ext.11, jhoyt@icirr.org.
• Oscar Chacón is director of Enlaces América, a project of the Chicago-based Heartland Alliance for Human Needs and Human Rights. Enlaces América works to empower Latino immigrant organizations in the U.S., in part to become involved in advocacy for immigration reform. Contact 312-660-1343, ochacon@enlacesamerica.org.
• Edwin I. Hernández is director of the Center for Study of Latino Religion at Notre Dame University in South Bend, Ind. The center conducts social-scientific studies of the U.S. Latino church, its leadership and the interaction between religion and community. Contact 574-631-8558, ehernan5@nd.edu.

IN THE SOUTHWEST
• Jacqueline Hagan is an associate professor of sociology at the University of Houston and co-director (with Nestor Rodriguez) of the Center for Immigration Research. She also runs (with Helen Rose Ebaugh) the center’s Religion and Migration Project. Contact 713-743-3945, jhagan@uh.edu.
• Helen Rose Ebaugh is a sociology professor at the University of Houston and with Jacqueline Hagan runs the Religion and Migration Project of the Center for Immigration Research. Contact 713-743-3952, Ebaugh@uh.edu.
• Beth Sanders is media contact for No More Deaths, a Tucson-based coalition of individuals, congregations and human rights advocates formed in response to the deaths of migrants crossing the desert in southern Arizona. No More Deaths volunteers help staff water and medical-assistance stations in the Sonoran desert and patrol the desert to search for migrants in distress. Contact 520-909-0636, beth10sanders@yahoo.com.
• The Rev. Harold Recinos is professor of church and society at Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. He has worked with immigrants in the United States and abroad and studies issues related to immigrants and refugees in the United States. Contact 214-768-1773, hrecinos@smu.edu.
• Ruben Martinez, an associate professor in the creative writing program at the University of Houston, is the son of immigrants; his father is from Mexico, and his mother from El Salvador. He is the author of The New Americans, which tells the stories of seven immigrant families and is the companion book to a PBS series on immigration from 2003. He’s also the author of Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail. Contact 213-804-4682, ruben6211@mac.com.

IN THE WEST/NORTHWEST
• Gaston Espinosa, assistant professor of philosophy/religious studies at Claremont McKenna College in California, specializes in Latino religion, politics and immigration. Contact gaston.espinosa@claremontmckenna.edu.
• Moises Escalante is health and benefits access education coordinator for the Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Rights. That statewide coalition, based in San Francisco, advocates for humane immigration laws. Contact 213-480-8800, moises_icir@yahoo.com.
• Wayne Cornelius is a professor of political science and U.S.-Mexico relations at the University of California at San Diego. He also is director of the university’s Center for Comparative Immigration Studies and is co-editor of Controlling Immigration: A Global Perspective. Contact 858-822-4447, wcorneli@ucsd.edu.
• Victor Davis Hanson is a fifth-generation Californian, a farmer, a classicist and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. He wrote the book Mexifornia: A State of Becoming, in which he argues that California is being transformed by illegal immigration from Mexico. Contact preferred by email only at author@victorhanson.com or jheyne@victorhanson.com.
• Uriel Iñiguez is executive director of the Washington State Commission on Hispanic Affairs. The commission is working to draft a legislative agenda for Latinos for the 2006 legislative session on issues including immigration. Contact 800-443-0294 or 360-725-5661, Hispanic@cha.wa.gov.