Over the course of his four-decade teaching career at Cornell Law, Stephen W. Yale-Loehr, BA ’77, JD ’81, has become widely known as an authority on U.S. immigration, co-authoring the 22-volume Immigration Law and Procedure, the field’s leading treatise. He’s taught immigration and asylum law, directed the Law School’s Immigration Law and Policy Program, co-directed its Asylum and Convention Against Torture Appellate Clinic, appeared before Congress multiple times as an expert witness, and published more than 200 books and articles.

On November 8, following the announcement of Yale-Loehr’s retirement at the end of 2024, faculty and colleagues came together for “The (Im)possibility of Immigration Reform,” a daylong symposium in his honor.

“Steve has had an extraordinary impact in the classroom, in the clinic, as a practitioner, and as a policy advocate, pushing forward the conversation about immigration with both principled and pragmatic suggestions for reform,” said Jens David Ohlin, the Allan R. Tessler Dean and Professor of Law, welcoming participants to the day’s three panel discussions, followed by a lighthearted roast. Describing Yale-Loehr as “a center of gravity” for the university’s focus on migration, Ohlin credited him with making Cornell Law a global leader in immigration law, as shown by the event’s panels, which featured academics and practitioners from across the political spectrum.

In the morning’s first panel, Lenni Benson, Distinguished Chair in Immigration and Human Rights Law at New York Law School, moderated a discussion on the current state of asylum law, with Jaya Ramji-Nogales, Associate Dean for Research and I. Herman Stern Professor of Law at Temple University, tracing the arc of the Biden administration’s shifting strategies at the country’s southern border. In the second panel, the Law School’s Randel Johnson, Non-resident Immigration Academic Fellow, moderated a discussion about immigration and the economy, grounding his argument in the clearly demonstrated benefits of immigrant labor, despite the results of the presidential election three days earlier.

In the afternoon’s panel, Marielena Hincapié, Distinguished Immigration Scholar at Cornell Law, hosted a conversation about the ways immigration representation has changed over the past forty years and why the need for legal representation has grown so dramatically, with participation from Cornellians Tasha Gottschalk-Fielding ’23, an Immigrant Justice Corps Legal Fellow and former student in the Cornell Farmworker Legal Assistance Clinic; Charles Kamasaki, Distinguished Immigration Scholar; and Beth Lyon, Associate Dean for Experiential Education, Clinical Professor of Law, and Clinical Program Director.

Following the break, participants returned for a lighthearted roast, with the tone set by Angelo Paparelli, a Vialto Law partner who praised Yale-Loehr as “an iconic figure in immigration law, revered professor, author of several highly regarded books, editor of the leading treatise in the field, pro bono advocate extraordinaire, thought leader, respected policy wonk, Congressional expert witness, admired law colleague, and mentor to many”—before segueing to a slide show of Yale-Loehr as a high school senior, Newspaper Carrier of the Month, Rotary Scholarship student, and “the Bob Newhart of lawyers,” according to a photo signed by Newhart.

Other speakers followed, with the final word going to Yale-Loehr. “I’m a normal person who has been lucky to have extraordinary friends, like all you colleagues, and that makes all the difference in the world,” he said. “My father always said, ‘Fly with the eagles,’ meaning, ‘Work with the best people you can.’ I’ve been lucky enough to do that.”

Conference cosponsors include the Cornell Migrations Initiative, the Cornell Law School Migration and Human Rights Program, and the Office of Vice Provost for International Affairs. Articles written for the conference will be published in the Cornell International Law Journal.