CONFERENCE ON U.S. AND WORLDWIDE IMMIGRATION ISSUES
TO FEATURE ADDRESS BY INS COMMISSIONER DORIS MEISSNER, 
DISCUSSIONS BY LEADING EXPERTS

	CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Jan. 12 -- U.S. and worldwide
immigration and refugee issues will be the subject of a major legal
symposium at the University of Virginia School of Law Jan. 27-28.
Doris Meissner, commissioner of the U.S. Immigration and
Naturalization Service, will present the conference's opening
address at 3:30 p.m. Jan. 27.
	The student-organized symposium, sponsored by the John
Bassett Moore Society of International Law and the Virginia Journal
of International Law, which is celebrating its 35th anniversary,
will be held in Caplin Auditorium and is open to the public.  (A
schedule is attached.)
	Government immigration officials and leading legal scholars
on immigration will participate in three panels on key national and
international issues in immigration law.  Louis Henkin, professor of
law at Columbia University School of Law and one of the nation's
foremost authorities on immigration law, will speak at a 7:30 p.m.
dinner Jan. 27 at the Rotunda.
	The symposium will focus on both U.S. policy, which is the
subject of current intense political debate, and the perspective of
other governments around the world.
	"The symposium has attracted the participation of many of
the leading thinkers and doers in the immigration field," said U.Va.
law professor David A. Martin, a specialist in immigration and
refugee law.  "It could not come at a better time, because the
weaknesses of immigration enforcement are now front page news, and
something will be done about it in the new Congress." 
	A panel at 4 p.m. Jan. 27 will consider whether current
international law and the 1951 U.N. Convention on Refugees are
adequate in light of recent refugee crises, including Haiti, Bosnia
and Rwanda.
	A panel at 10:30 a.m. Jan. 28 will center on the relative
responsibilities of state and federal governments for immigration
problems and on California's controversial Proposition 187, which
denies undocumented immigrants access to education, health care and
other social benefits.
	A 2 p.m. panel Jan. 28 will focus on citizenship and
naturalization policies, including English language requirements.
	Martin, a leading expert on immigration law and former State
Department human rights official, will present the conference's
closing remarks at 3:30 p.m. Jan. 28.
	The immigration theme was chosen for the annual conference
sponsored by the two organizations because "it is the most timely of
international topics right now," said U.Va. law student and
conference director Scott Orchard.
	The Virginia Journal of International Law, now in its 35th
year of publication, is the oldest continuously published,
student-edited law review in the country devoted exclusively to
international law.  The J.B. Moore Society of International Law,
founded at U.Va. in 1951 to foster understanding of international
law, is the oldest organization of its kind in North America.
	For additional information contact Scott Orchard, conference
director, at (804) 924-3087 or 979-4527.
###
January 11, 1995