Office of External Communications

Houston, TX 77204-5017 Fax; 713/743-8199

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 12, 2004

Contact: Eric Gerber
713/743-8189 (office)
713/617-7130(pager)
egerber@uh.edu

HOUSTON, April 12, 2004 – The national debate about immigration issues moves to center stage in Houston this month as two of the country’s most respected “think tanks” team up to sponsor a conference examining this controversial subject.

The Center for Immigration Research, at the University of Houston, and the Mexico Institute of the Woodrow Wilson Center, in Washington, D.C., are presenting “Immigration Reform: Lessons from the Past, Directions for the Future” April 22. The seminar will be held in the Ballroom of the Americas of the Hilton Americas Hotel in downtown Houston.

Former Houston mayor Bob Lanier will offer a welcome and opening remarks.

“The recent proposal for immigration reform by President Bush and similar proposals by several members of Congress have placed this issue at the center of our national debate. This seminar will explore what we can learn from past experiences of U.S. immigration policy to help us think through our options for the future,” said Andrew D. Selee, director of the Mexico Institute with the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Latin American Program.

“The Woodrow Wilson Center is honored to be partnering with the University of Houston's Center for Immigration Research, one of the premier research centers on immigration in the country, to carry out this timely and provocative seminar.”

Panelists for the conference include Nestor Rodriguez, co-director of UH’s Center for Immigration Research (CIR) and chair of the sociology department; Joseph Vail, a former immigration judge who is now clinical professor of law at the UH Law Center and director of the UH Law Center Immigration Clinic; Karl Eschbach, UH associate professor of sociology and CIR research associate; Katharine Donato, Rice University associate professor of sociology and CIR research associate; and Rodolfo Cruz Pineiro, Director of Outreach and assistant professor at El Colegio de la Frontera Norte in Mexico.

Selee will serve as moderator for the program.

For information about the UH Center for Immigration Research, visit the Web site http://www.uh.edu/cir/.
For information about the Woodrow Wilson Center, visit the Web site http://wwics.si.edu/.

About the University of Houston

The University of Houston, Texas’ premier metropolitan research and teaching institution, is home to more than 40 research centers and institutes and sponsors more than 300 partnerships with corporate, civic and governmental entities. UH, the most diverse research university in the country, stands at the forefront of education, research and service with more than 35,000 students.

For more information about UH visit the university’s ‘Newsroom’ at www.uh.edu/admin/media/newsroom.