The U.S. immigration system, which has allowed generations of people to immigrate to the U.S. and continues to make America great, is under assault by the Trump administration.

Faced with the reality of SB-4s ugly shadow hanging over Texas, AILA has made the decision to move its Annual Conference (AC) in 2018, originally scheduled to take place in Texas, to another state.  As a member of AILA’s Executive Committee, I worked with my colleagues on the Board of Governors to review our options to determine how best to walk the talk of AILA’s mission.  If we as an organization are committed to promoting fair and just immigration laws, how then should we respond when the state where we were to hold our premier event of the year – an event that brings thousands of immigration attorneys, professors, and law students together as well as millions of dollars in revenue and spending power – has passed a law that promotes injustice against our members and clients and is so blatantly contrary to our mission?