Panelists will provide suggestions for supporting individuals who are navigating the US immigration system and provide insights to citizens who want to support others in their community in this process.
Moderated by Dr. Lindsay Benstead
Lindsay J. Benstead is Professor of Politics and Global Studies in the Mark O. Hatfield School of Government and Director of the Middle East Studies Center (MESC) at Portland State University. Her research on women and politics, public opinion, and survey methodology has appeared in Perspectives on Politics, International Journal of Public Opinion Research, Governance, and Foreign Affairs. She holds a Ph.D. in Public Policy and Political Science from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. For more on her research, see pdx.academia.edu/LindsayBenstead.
Featured Panelists Joanna Jauregui, Ali Schneider, and Daniel VanLehmann
Joanna Hidalgo Jauregui (Jo) is excited to serve as the Program Coordinator for the new DREAMer Resource Center. The granddaughter of immigrants from Sonora, Mexico, Joanna was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona, where she graduated summa cum laude from Arizona State University with a B.S. in Community/Public Health from Arizona State University. Before joining PSU, Jo led prevention efforts, community outreach, and supported statewide protocols to combat labor and sexual exploitation of vulnerable communities. As the coordinator for the Dreamer Resource Center, she is dedicated to ensuring that all Portland State University students, regardless of immigration status, have the support and resources to succeed through student-informed and equity-based programming and support.
JO focuses on direct support and advocacy for immigrant-origin students in higher education, focusing on DACAmented, undocumented, refugee, asylee, and other immigration experiences. Program focus areas include: Dreamer-centered workshops, programs, and events, 1:1 and small group resource navigation, advocacy, support, and cross-university collaboration for equity and inclusion for Dreamer students.
Ali Schneider is a staff attorney at Portland State University-Student Legal Services, providing legal services to PSU students, specializing in immigration law. Ali has been practicing immigration law for 15 years and has been dedicated to serving low income clients throughout her career. Before coming to PSU-SLS, she worked at Catholic Charities- Immigration Legal Services and then ran a private practice, Meadowlark Immigration PC, working from a trauma informed perspective. She is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), and received an AILA pro bono attorney award in 2015 for her work at the Artesia Detention Facility, where she represented women and children from Central America fleeing persecution.
Daniel Van Lehman is a Visiting Scholar in the Middle East Studies Center at Portland State University where he previously co-led the National Somali Bantu Project. He worked as a field officer with Somali refugees for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Kenya and later as a resettlement officer in Mozambique. Mr. Van Lehman has testified in approximately 20 cases in immigration court as an expert witness on the deportation experience of Somali minorities. His 2019 research article in the Georgetown Immigration Law Journal, Removals to Somalia in Light of the Convention Against Torture: Recent Evidence from Somali Bantu Deportees, informs his testimony. Mr. Van Lehman holds a master’s degree from Cornell University and speaks a Somali Bantu language, Swahili, which he learned as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya.
"My area of focus is with P-2 refugees (those of special humanitarian concern) who were resettled in the United States years earlier as children and who are at particular risk of torture should they be removed to their home country. Their removal to dangerous faraway countries makes it unlikely they - usually young fathers - could ever return to America to support their US citizen children and spouses. Refugee resettlement agencies, volunteers, and even university researchers play an important role in reducing removals of these vulnerable resettled and asylum-seeking immigrants."