Free movie, speaker on immigration
What if you walked into your home, tired and weary, to find strangers have taken up residence? Feature film “The Visitor” addresses just this situation. See the movie to find out what happens and learn a vital lesson about the U.S. legal system and undocumented immigrants.
Academy Award nominee Richard Jenkins (Six Feet Under), stars as Walter, an isolated professor who is gradually transformed after returning from a long absence to find an undocumented immigrant couple living in his apartment. The three develop a cautious friendship which is severely tested after immigration officers appear on the scene. Walter is compelled to answer: Do I turn away, or get involved as one of the couple, Tarek, sits behind bars?
Consider another situation. What if you were Marta, a 12-year-old Central American girl who entered the U.S. illegally, by yourself, to search for your mother who was working here? You got caught by immigration authorities and imprisoned. Who would represent you in the proceedings?
Wendy Young, Executive Director of Kids In Need of Defense (KIND) will speak and lead a discussion after the film. KIND provides legal representation for children like Marta, one of more than 8000 children who enter the U.S. each year without a parent and are put in custody of the U.S. government. Ms. Young’s two decades of advocacy for strong U.S. immigration and refugee policy include serving as Senator Edward Kennedy’s Chief Counsel on Immigration Policy for the Senate Committee on the Judiciary. She was also the Coordinator for U.S. Government Relations for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
The Visitor and presentation by Wendy Young will take place Wednesday, January 13 at 7:00 p.m. in the auditorium of the Byrd Legislative Studies Center on the Shepherd University campus. Free and open to the public, the program is sponsored by the Amnesty International Upper Potomac Chapter, Shepherd University’s departments of Political Science and Multicultural Student Affairs, and the Shepherdstown Public Library Human Rights Video Project. Contact amnestyi@shepherd.edu or visit shepherd.edu/amnestyi for more information.
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What: Free Film, The Visitor, starring Richard Jenkins.
Wendy Young, formerly Sen. Kennedy’s Chief Counsel on Immigration Policy for the Senate Judiciary Committee and currently Director of an organization providing legal representation to unaccompanied immigrant children will introduce the film and lead a discussion after.
When: Wednesday, Jan. 13, 7 p.m.
Where: Robert C. Byrd Center for Legislative Studies, 213 N. King St., Shepherd University