NAFUSA President Rick Deane has announced early plans for the NAFUSA annual conference to be held in Atlanta, Georgia, October 11-13, 2012. The conference will be held at the W Atlanta Downtown, and will begin with a cocktail reception on Thursday evening, October 11, at the East Lake Golf Club, the home course of legendary golfer Bobby Jones and the oldest golf course in Atlanta.
Golf will be available at East Lake on the afternoon of October 11, beginning at noon. Price per player will be $273.45, which includes taxes. Gratuties are not permitted. Although the golf fees are high, East Lake is private, historic, caddie only and the NAFUSA golfers will be playing the course the week following the FEDEX Tour Championship, which consists of the top 30 players for the year, one of whom will be declared the player of the year. Proceeds from the course support the East Lake Foundation efforts to enrich the lives of the children of the neighborhood. These children now have a charter school, a resident golf pro for kids, a golf academy and their own outstanding neighborhood golf course. Details will be published soon as to how to sign up for golf.
The conference will continue at the W Hotel with continuing education programs on Friday and Saturday mornings.
On Friday, October 12, 2012, at NAFUSA’s national conference in Atlanta, Deputy Solicitor General Michael R. Dreeben, shown above with Attorney General Holder, will present the annual review of the United States Supreme Court term which will end in June. Dreeben has served more than 24 years in the Department of Justice. His principal responsibility is federal criminal appellate law. He has argued more than 80 cases before the United States Supreme Court, and numerous cases in the courts of appeals, including en banc arguments in nine circuits. He has twice received the Department of Justice’s second highest award- the Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service. He is a graduate of Duke Law School.
Charlie Savage, left, of The New York Times has agreed to join us for the third year in a row, and will moderate a two hour panel on immigration issues on Saturday morning. He is a Washington correspondent for The Times. Savage covered national legal affairs for the Boston Globe from 2003 to 2008. He received a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 2007. His book about the growth of executive power, “Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency and the Subversion of American Democracy,” was named one of the best books of 2007 by both Slate and Esquire.
Joining Savage on the immigration panel will be Alejandro (“Ali”) Mayorkas, right, the Director of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) at the Department of Homeland Security. He was nominated by President Obama and confirmed unanimously by the Senate on August 7, 2009. Mayorkas leads the agency charged with operating the largest immigration system in the world, with a workforce of more than 18,000. He served as the United States Attorney for the Central District of California 1999-2001 and is a member of NAFUSA. Prior to becomming the Director of USCIS, Mayorkas was a partner in the law firm of O’Melveny & Myers LLP. He is a graduate of Loyola Law School.
Nina Perales, shown right, Vice President of Litigation for MALDEF, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, has also joined the NAFUSA panel on immigration issues. In her role at MALDEF, Ms. Perales supervises the legal staff and litigation docket in MALDEF’s offices throughout the United States. Ms. Perales is known for her work in voting rights, including redistricting and vote dilution cases. Her legal victories include LULAC v. Perry, the Latino challenge to Texas 2003 congressional redistricting, which Ms. Perales led through trial and argued successfully in the U.S. Supreme Court. Ms. Perales also specializes in immigrants’ rights litigation, including leading cases striking down anti-immigrant laws and recovering civil damages from violent vigilantes. On March 21, 2012, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled the City of Farmers Branch, Texas, violated the Constitution by passing a housing ordinance aimed at driving out Latinos. Ms. Perales was lead counsel for the successful plaintiffs-appellees, and argued the case before the Fifth Circuit. Ms. Perales earned her J.D. from Columbia University School of Law.
Also joining the panel is Alabama’s Attorney General, Luther Strange, shown left. Elected as Alabama’s 49th Attorney General, Strange serves, among his other duties, as coordinating counsel for the Gulf States in the litigation against BP for the oil spill.
Prior to his election, Strange was in private practice in Birmingham, Alabama, where he founded Strange LLC, named one of the top firms in the Southeast for economic development. Prior to starting his own firm, he was a partner at Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP. He is a graduate of Tulane University Law School.
Chief John King, the Chief of Police for the City of Doraville, Georgia, shown right, has also joined the panel on immigration. Prior to becoming chief, King served a number of assignments that included serving as a task force officer to the FBI and the DEA.
Chief King is also an Infantry Colonel in the US Army and has been deployed numerous times with his last military assignment as Senior Military Advisor to the Afghan Deputy Minister of Interior, Kabul, Afghanistan, were he assisted DOD and the FBI in the establishment of the Major Crimes Task Force focused on anticorruption and specialized investigations by Afghan investigators. Chief King is currently the Commander of the 48th Infantry Brigade Combat Team Georgia Army National Guard.
COL King has held a number of other key staff and command positions in previous assignments. He served as commander on Company D, 1-108th Armor in Canton, Georgia during Desert Shield/Storm. He served as commander of Troop E, 348th Cavalry and Troop E 108th Cavalry in Griffin, Georgia. His staff assignments include Assistant S-3 Ops, 48th Infantry Brigade, and Operations Officer for 1-108th Armor. He also served as a scout platoon leader, tank platoon leader and executive officer.
Among his decorations are the Bronze Star Medal with 1/OLC, Meritorious Service Medal (3), Army Commendation Medal (with Oak Leaf Cluster), Army Achievement Medal (with Oak Leaf Cluster), Combat Infantryman’s Badge and Combat Action Badge. Chief King was born in Mexico City and speaks fluent Spanish. He is a graduate of the FBI National Academy.
Julie Myers Wood, shown right, who served as the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for nearly three years in the Bush administration, is the final member of the panel on immigration.
ICE is the largest investigative component of the Department of Homeland Security and the second largest investigative agency in the federal government. Ms. Wood previously served as the Assistant Secretary for Export Enforcement at the Department of Commerce, Chief of Staff for the Criminal Division at the Department of Justice, and Deputy Assistant Secretary at the Treasury Department. She also served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. She earned her J.D. from Cornell Law School.
Ms. Wood is currently the President of ICS Consulting, LLC, providing internal audit, risk assessment, and quality control services to companies and government clients of a wide range of issues, including trade control concerns, immigration compliance issues and security and guard services. She also serves on the Advisory Board for the ABA Commission on Immigration and the Constitution Law Project’s Committee on Immigration.
On Friday afternoon, a luncheon will be held at The Carter Center . The conference will conclude with a Saturday evening cocktail reception and dinner at the W Hotel.