WASHINGTON, D.C. (September 25, 2015) – On the 50th anniversary of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, the Center for Immigration Studies hosted a panel discussion at the National Press Club focusing on the causes and consequences of the legislation, which is the foundation of today's immigration law. Panelists examined the sponsors' original expectations, a helpful exercise at a time when Congress debates making major changes to immigration law.
When signing the bill in 1965, President Lyndon Johnson said, "This bill we sign today is not a revolutionary bill. It does not affect the lives of millions." Half a century later, our panelists evaluated that prediction.
Date: Thursday, October 1, 2015, at 9:30 a.m.
Location: National Press Club, Zenger Room, 529 14th St, NW, 13th Floor, Washington, D.C.
Participants:
Philip Martin, Ph.D.
Professor emeritus of agricultural and resource economics at the University of California at Davis, chair of the University of California's Comparative Immigration and Integration Program, and author of Importing Poverty?: Immigration and the Changing Face of Rural America.
Margaret "Peggy" Orchowski, Ph.D.
Author of the new book The Law That Changed the Face of America: The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. She is Washington Bureau Chief of Hispanic Outlook magazine and author previously of Immigration and the American Dream: Battling the Political Hype and Hysteria.
Jerry Kammer
Senior Research Fellow for the Center for Immigration Studies and author of a new paper for the Center on the passage of the 1965 act. During more than 30 years as a journalist he worked at the Arizona Republic and the Copley News Service, and has won the Robert F. Kennedy Award for humanitarian journalism and the Pulitzer Prize.