Do we need to better guard our borders?

Are we a safer nation today because of new immigration restrictions since Sept. 11, 2001?

These are among the questions that law professors will ask at the University of Chicago next week.

With immigration one of the hottest topics in Congress today, The Legal Forum has invited scholars and human rights experts to discuss and debate "Immigration Law and Policy" on Oct. 27-28 at the law school.

The keynote speaker will be Julie L. Myers, assistant secretary of homeland security for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

She leads the second-largest investigative agency in the federal government with more than 15,000 employees, including 6,000 investigators, and an annual budget of more than $4 billion.

The 17 speakers in addition to Myers come from law schools all over the U.S.

One speaker, Michael A. Olivas of the University of Houston Law Center, will talk about the dangers of towns and states getting involved in immigration laws.

Olivas, according to an advance synopsis, will argue that requiring English-only signs or making landlords check the immigration status of certain renters "are sure signs of an ethnic and national origin `tax' that will only be levied on certain groups."

Peter Schuck of Yale Law School, on the other hand, will discuss advantages and disadvantages of local actions, and "potential policy gains from a more decentralized approach" to immigration problems.

Such potential gains might include, he says, a greater role for the states in admitting people to the U.S. for certain types of employment, better integration with state and local criminal justice systems and "state laws that mimic and reinforce federal employer sanctions."

"There's a lot of immigration policy that is being made and debated right now in Congress," said Kit Slack, a U of C law student and the symposium editor. "People are curious to hear how the academy analyzes the proposals that are coming out."

Slack, 28, who is from Spokane, suggested the immigration topic for the symposium, which is being presented by the University of Chicago Legal Forum. The Forum is a student-edited journal that focuses on a single issue each year.

Points of view presented in next week's discussion will be published as the Forum's Volume 2007.

U of C law Professor Adam B. Cox is one of the moderators. "There's only one professor here who does immigration law, who has that focus," according to Slack, and Cox is that one, she said.

"The symposium ... is bringing together some of the best immigration scholars in the field today," Cox said.

Copyright 2006 Law Bulletin Publishing Company