11/10/00--Boston College Law School Professor Daniel Kanstroom has been appointed Chair of the National Immigration Law Task Force of the American Bar Association's Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities.

Comprised of prominent attorneys from around the country, the mandate of the Task Force is to identify and examine problematic areas of U.S. immigration law and to make policy recommendations for adoption by the ABA. The Task Force is currently reviewing the problem of whether unaccompanied minors have a right to appointed counsel in deportation proceedings. Its focus will also likely include aspects of two 1996 laws which gave unprecedented powers to the INS and contained highly controversial provisions such as mandatory detention, retroactive deportation laws, elimination of judicial review, and elimination of discretionary relief from deportation. The Task Force may also examine allegations of racial profiling by INS and racial disparities in immigration law enforcement.

The Task Force includes Professor T. Alexander Aleinikoff, former INS General Counsel; Lucas Guttentag, Director of the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project; Julie Su, of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center; Georgina Verdugo, of Americans for a Fair Chance, Meghan Magruder, of Hale & Dorr, and others. Hon. Cruz Reynoso and Harold L. Rock, Esq. will serve as Special Advisors to the Task Force.