afternoon, i'm a professor at georgetown law and i want to thank again my wonderful colleagues from mpi for organizing the extraordinary sessions, we will continue to learn now about refugee resettlement issues. you heard actually our keynoters. if you aren't familiar with the refugee resettlement program, it's a program where the united states selects refugees from abroad and brings them to the united states. .. it's greater than ever. so we have a great panel to discuss these issues. to my immediate right is anna's greene, director at the international rescue committee. she will be talking about what is going on at the state level for resettlement agencies and other players, all the stakeholders at the local level because that is where a lot of the concerns are being raised. two and a spray is my friend and colleague, trained to come out my former dean who hired me here. thank you. also the high commissioner for refugees and no visiting professor at columbia law school. alex is going to be tabbed about this from a global perspective of someone who's been familiar with refugee resettle

doors is a senior fellow at mpi. she directs our u.s. immigration policy program and is as many of you know the distinguished former commissioner of the u.s. immigration and naturalization service. so with that, doris. [applause] >> well, good morning. i am so pleased to be able to begin this day today by welcoming and introducing alejandro mayorkas. he is familiar of course the most everybody in this room and known personally by many of the people in this room. and that's because he's always gone the extra mile in forging relationships, and very importantly, and listening. we first met in 2009 when he reached out to me having just come together just to be taking over uscis. had not yet happened, and we had an incredibly productive first conversation which grew into a very reductive relationship over all of these years since. and, of course, after having served for several years at uscis as the director, he graduated. he was promoted to a rather difficult process but nonetheless promoted to becoming the deputy secretary of the department

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and i want to thank again my wonderful colleagues from mpi in clinic for organizing these extraordinaryg a lot. we will continue to learn now about refugee resettlement issues. you have heard actually our keynoters. both our keynoters talk about refugee resettlement already. they already teed this up in some ways. if you aren't familiar with the refugee resettlement program, it's the program where the united states selected freenls from abroad and brings them to the united states. and it was actually created in the aftermath of the fall cigon to rescue and those who were at risk at that time. and then it was formerized in the refugee act in 1980. since then, the u.s. has considered a leader. in refugee resettlement. and not in terms of absolute per capita numbers, but in terms of absolute numbers. we are considered a leader. this is also the program that was almost shut down by the white house after 9/11. and here we are today, 15 years later with new challenges that have arisen just at the moment when the need to protect refugees is greater than ever. so we have a great panelle to disc