Claire R. Thomas is an attorney, advocate, and adjunct professor. Her interests and expertise include: U.S. immigration law, asylum and refugee law, unaccompanied children, immigrant access to public benefits, and empowerment for women and girls facing poverty and gender-based violence. Thomas directs the Asylum Clinic at New York Law School, in which she teaches law students how to represent immigrants seeking asylum and other humanitarian immigration protections in the United States. Media includes: The New York Times, The Bangkok Post, The New Stateman, The Queens Daily Eagle, Law at the Margins.

Elianne Ramos is the Chief Communications Officer for Latino Justice PRLDEF. Previously, she was Senior Director for Public Affairs and Communications at the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health. From 2008-2016, she served as the Principal and CEO of Speak Hispanic Communications and Founder of the Border Kids Relief Project. Media includes: USA Today, ABC/Univision, CNN, Fusion, NBC Latino, Fox Business News, The Huffington Post, Voice of America, Latina Magazine.

Maria Echaveste is the President and CEO of the Opportunity Institute. She has built a distinguished career working as a consultant, lecturer, senior White House official, long-time community leader, and corporate attorney. Echaveste has been affiliated with UC Berkeley in various capacities since 2004 including: lecturing at the School of Law and in the undergraduate division on immigration and education; serving as program and policy director of the Law School’s Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Law and Social Policy from 2008 -2012; as a Senior Fellow at UC Berkeley’s Center for Latin American Studies since 2008; and with the Berkeley Food Institute, focused on transforming our nation’s food system. Extensive media experience.

Amanda Baran is an attorney who engages in policy analysis and advocacy for immigrant and women's rights. She worked at the Department of Homeland Security for almost ten years where she held a number of significant positions including Chief of Public Engagement at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and most recently, Principal Director of Immigration Policy for the Department's Office of Policy. Media includes: The Hill, Los Angeles Times, VOA Noticias, Rewire.News.

Marisa Franco is the Director and co-Founder of Mijente, a digital and grassroots hub for Latinx and Chicanx organizing and movement building. In her more than 15 years of work, Marisa has helped lead key campaigns rooted in low-income and communities of color, characterized by their innovation and effectiveness​. She is a member of Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders’s Unity Task Force on Immigration. Media includes: Politico, MSNBC, CNN, Univision, The Washington Post.

Lourdes Guadalupe Martinez is an immigrant originally from Mexico City, a home that she left at the age of 13 to move to Texas with her family.  Today, she is the Political Director of Mujeres Unidas y Activas, or MUA, a grassroots organization of Latina immigrant women in the San Francisco Bay Area with a double mission of promoting personal transformation and building community power for social and economic justice. Media includes: Univision, Telemundo, NBC Bay Area, KQED News.  

Anu Joshi is the Senior Director of Immigrant Rights Policy at the New York Immigration Coalition, an umbrella policy and advocacy organization that represents over 200 member organizations statewide. Joshi leads the organization's work on issues relating to immigration status and enforcement on both the state and federal level. Recently, her work has focused on federal appropriations, Dream Act and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) negotiations, the proposed public charge rule change, access to drivers licenses for undocumented immigrants in New York, and broad statewide sanctuary policies. Media includes: Democracy Now!, Al Jazeera America, The Guardian, WNYC.

Yesenia Chavez, a daughter of Mexican immigrants, serves as the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Policy Analyst within the National Political Advocacy Department. Prior to ACLU, she was the Immigrant Women's Health and Rights Policy Analyst at the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, and led the organization's immigration policy efforts against the detention of pregnant individuals, family separation, ICE & CBP funding, and the organization's campaign on the "public charge" rule. Media includes: The Atlantic, Good Morning Washington.

Marcia Anne Zug teaches Family Law, Advanced Family Law, Immigration law and American Indian law at the University of South Carolina. Professor Zug's research focuses on the intersection of family law and immigration law and she has recently published a book entitled Buying a Bride: An Engaging History of Mail-Order Matches. Her op-ed on VAWA's mail order bride amendments was published by The New Republic Magazine and her recent articles "Separation, Deportation, Termination" and "Should I Stay or Should I Go," which exposed the growing practice of separating fit immigrant parents from their American citizen children, garnered national attention. Media includes: The Associated Press, CNN.com, The Kansas City Star, BBC Radio.

Cristina Tzintzún is the Co-founder and Executive Director of Jolt Action, the largest Latino progressive civic engagement organization in Texas. She is also founder of Workers Defense Project (WDP) and was previously their Executive Director. WDP is a statewide, membership-based workers’ rights organization that is winning better working conditions for Texans. WDP has been called one of the nation’s most creative organizations for immigrant workers byThe New York Times. Cristina is the author of the book Presente! Latino Immigrant Voices in the Struggle for Racial Justice published by AK Press (2014). Media includes: NPR, The New York Times, USA Today, Univision, MSNBC.

Sayu Bhojwani is the President and Founder of The New American Leaders Project (NALP), which is working to build an inclusive democracy. From 2002 to 2004, she was New York City’s first Commissioner of Immigrant Affairs, under Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, and in 1997 she founded South Asian Youth Action (SAYA!), the first and only organization working exclusively with South Asian youth. She currently serves on the board of the National Immigration Forum. Her TED Talk, “How immigrants voices make democracy stronger” can be found on ted.com. Media includes: Huffington Post, CNN, ABC News, The Chicago Tribune, The New Yorker.

Jessica Therkelsen currently serves as the Director of Legal Protection at HIAS, an international refugee rights organization. Previously, she was at OneJustice. As the Director of the Pro Bono Justice Program at OneJustice, she organized life changing legal services for travelers trapped by the 2017 travel bans, survivors of 2017 wildfires across California, DACA recipients losing status, and immigrants seeking defense from deportation. Media includes: Time Magazine, Women's Radio.

Margie McHugh is the Director of the National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy at the Migration Policy Institute. The Center is a national hub for leaders in government, community affairs, business, and academia to obtain the knowledge and skills they need to respond to the challenges and opportunities that today's high rates of immigration pose for local communities across the United States. Media includes: The Washington Post, Voice of America, Associated Press, New York Daily News, New York Sun. 

Shannon O'Neill is the Nelson and David Rockefeller Senior Fellow for Latin America Studies and Director of the Civil Society, Markets, and Democracy Program at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), an independent, nonpartisan membership organization, think tank, and publisher. Her expertise includes U.S.-Latin American relations, trade, energy, and immigration. Media includes: PBS, The New York Times, Bloomberg, MSNBC, Univision, CNN, BBC. 

Dr. Nadine Nakamura is an associate professor in the department of psychology at the University of La Verne where she teaches multicultural psychology at the masters and doctoral level. Her research relates to multiculturalism and intersectionality and include immigration, HIV, and ethnic and sexual minority health and mental health, as well as understanding the unique needs of LGBT people of color, LGBT immigrants and asylum seekers, and LGBT international issues. Media includes: CNN, APA Monitor.

Christine Neumann-Ortiz is the founding Executive Director of Voces de la Frontera, a low-wage and immigrant workers center with chapters in Milwaukee and Racine, Wisconsin, including a student chapter called Students United for Immigrant Rights with members from 3 high schools. Voces de la Frontera is increasingly recognized as Wisconsin’s leading voice for immigration reform. Media includes: CNN, NPR, The Nation, Telemundo, Fox News, ABC, Wisconsin Public Radio.

Kathleen Newland is co-founder of the Migration Policy Institute and directs MPI's programs on migrants, migration, and development and comprehensive protection for refugees and internally displaced people. Her work focuses on the relationship between migration and development, governance of international migration, and refugee protection. Media includes: The New York Times, BBC World, The Economist, NPR, Reuters.  

Laura Carlsen is Director of the Americas Program in Mexico City, a program of the Center for International Policy based in Washington DC. Her most recent analysis can be found at www.americas.org. She is a frequent radio, print and television commentarist for U.S., Latin American and Mexican media, member of KPFK's weekly round table on national and international affairs, host of the weekly television shows "Interviews From Mexico" and "Hecho en América", and regular columnist with Foreign Policy in Focus, Palabras al Margen, Desinformémonos and Counterpunch, in English and Spanish. Media includes: NBC, CBC, BBC, Costa a Costa, Democracy Now, The Washington Post, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, InterPress Service, Guardian, Christian Science Monitor.

Vanessa Perez is an author and professor of Latino Studies at Brooklyn College, City University of New York. She is an expert on Latinas and immigration and has published extensively on how the experience of immigration negatively impact Latina’s educational outcomes, economic development, health, and self-esteem. Media includes: The Huffington Post, NPR, CUNY Live, ABC 7. 

As Senior Fellow at the Center for Social Inclusion, Deepa Iyer provides analysis, commentary and scholarship on the ways to build racial equity and solidarity in light of the rapid demographic transformation in America’s neighborhoods, schools and workplaces.Deepa is an attorney who has worked on civil and immigrant rights issues in the non-profit and governmental sectors for 15 years. Media includes: The New York Times, The Guardian, Al-Jazeera America, The Nation.