Episode 226: Migrants Are Not “The Villain”
“It’s a crisis!!,” is what we are bombarded with when it comes to migration. But guess what? It is not a crisis and how we discuss migrants and migration should reflect their humanity because they are people too. L. Joy brings noted immigration attorney Allen Orr back to the front of the class to give us the history and context we need around migrants and migration to take civic action.
Homework:
Listen to #SundayCivics episode 189 on immigration featuring Allen Orr. https://www.sundaycivics.org/episodes/episode189
Check out these immigration organizations attorney Orr shared:
The Haitian Bridge Alliance https://haitianbridgealliance.org/
UndocuBlack Network https://haitianbridgealliance.org/
Black Alliance for Just Immigration https://baji.org/
Check out Orr Immigration, attorney Orr’s website https://www.orrimmigration.com/
Our Guest:
Allen Orr has more than 25 years of experience in advocacy on various civil rights and important human rights issues. On immigration-specific matters, he has met with the United States Department of Labor, the Department of Homeland Security, the White House, and various members of Congress, regarding policies and practice. He is proud to be an advocate for immigration reform, election rights protection, and racial and gender civil rights issues. Allen is an active member of the election protection telephone bank for national and local elections.
Born in Valdosta, he attended Lowndes High School, where he found his passion for debate. Following high school, he enrolled at Morehouse College, obtaining his Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy in 1995. He followed that up by enrolling at Washington, DC’s prestigious Howard University School of Law, where he earned his Juris Doctor degree.
After working for the world’s largest law firm in the global immigration department for over a decade, Allen established Orr Immigration Law Firm PC, a minority-owned firm based in Washington, DC. The firm focuses on United States corporate compliance as well as global corporate representation and assistance on immigration issues. Clients of Orr Immigration include Fortune 500 companies, hospitals, oil companies, law firms, and a variety of minority businesses.
Allen Orr Jr. is the first African American and the first same-gender loving person elected to a national office of the American Immigration Lawyer Association, a bar association with more than 14,000 members. He is the past president of AILA.
