Immigration Reform in 2025

Amy Nice has been an immigration lawyer for 35 years, with a broad range of experience in both private practice and government. From June 2021 to January 2023, Ms. Nice served as an assistant director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, responsible for leading efforts on STEM talent policy. She also worked at the Office of the General Counsel at DHS headquarters and was executive director of immigration policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for almost five years.

Charles Kamasaki is former executive vice president at UnidosUS (formerly the National Council of La Raza), the nation’s largest Latino civil rights organization. He also is a fellow at the Migration Policy Institute and has written a book about immigration policy called Immigration Reform: The Corpse That Will Not Die. Mr. Kamasaki is currently a Distinguished Visiting Immigration Scholar at Cornell Law School.

Marielena Hincapié is a Distinguished Immigration Fellow and Visiting Scholar at Cornell Law School’s Immigration Law and Policy Program. She served as the executive director of the Los Angeles-based National Immigration Law Center (NILC) and the NILC Immigrant Justice Fund (IJF) until November 2022. Ms. Hincapié began her tenure at NILC in 2000 as a staff attorney leading the organization’s labor and employment program. During that time, she successfully litigated law reform and impact-litigation cases dealing with the intersection of immigration laws and employment/labor laws. 

As an immigrant from Colombia, Ms. Hincapié brings a bilingual and bicultural perspective to her work advancing equity, justice, and democracy. She serves as a member of the Board of Trustees for The David and Lucile Packard Foundation and is the author of a forthcoming book, Becoming America: A Personal History of A Nation’s Immigration Wars (Flatiron 2026).

Randy Johnson has worked on employment and immigration law and policy issues for over 25 years, bringing a broad perspective from working in the executive agencies, on Capitol Hill, and in the private sector. Deeply involved in past efforts on comprehensive immigration reform, including testifying in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, Mr. Johnson’s experience includes working as the senior vice president at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, labor counsel to the House Education and Labor Committee, and special assistant to the Solicitor of Labor at the U.S. Department of Labor.

Steve Yale-Loehr has practiced immigration law for over 35 years. He is co-author of Immigration Law and Procedure, a leading 21-volume treatise on U.S. immigration law. He also teaches immigration and asylum law at Cornell Law School as Professor of Immigration Law Practice and is of counsel at Miller Mayer in Ithaca, New York. He also founded and was the original executive director of Invest In the USA, a trade association of EB-5 immigrant investor regional centers. Professor Yale-Loehr received his B.A. degree from Cornell University in 1977 and his J.D. cum laude from Cornell Law School in 1981. He was editor-in-chief of the Cornell International Law Journal. After graduation, Professor Yale-Loehr clerked for the chief judge of the Northern District of New York.

From 1982 to 1986, Professor Yale-Loehr practiced international trade and immigration law at a large law firm in Washington, D.C. From 1986 to 1994 he was managing editor of Interpreter Releases and executive editor of Immigration Briefings, two leading immigration law publications.

Professor Yale-Loehr is the co-author or editor of many books, including Green Card Stories; America’s Challenge: Domestic Security, Civil Liberties and National Unity After September 11; Balancing Interests: Rethinking the Selection of Skilled Immigrants; Global Business Immigration Practice Guide; J Visa Guidebook; Understanding the Immigration Act of 1990; and Understanding the 1986 Immigration Law, as well as numerous law review articles.

Professor Yale-Loehr is a member of the New York Bar and the U.S. Supreme Court. He is a member of the asylum committee and the administrative litigation task force of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA). He is also a founding member of the Alliance of Business Immigration Lawyers, a global consortium of top business immigration attorneys.

Professor Yale-Loehr is annually listed in Chambers Global, Chambers USA, and An International Who’s Who of Corporate Immigration Lawyers as one of the best immigration lawyers in the world. He is listed in Who’s Who in America. He is frequently quoted in the press on immigration issues and has often testified before Congress. He is the 2001 recipient of AILA’s Elmer Fried Award for excellence in teaching and the 2004 recipient of AILA’s Edith Lowenstein Award for excellence in advancing the practice of immigration law. He is also a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and a non-resident fellow at the Migration Policy Institute.

Theresa Cardinal Brown is a senior advisor of immigration and border policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center. Ms. Brown’s career includes working in the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama, serving as director of immigration and border policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and serving as associate director of business immigration advocacy at the American Immigration Lawyers Association.