Senior Research Fellow, Border Security and Immigration Center, The Heritage Foundation
Simon Hankinson is a Senior Research Fellow in the Border Security and Immigration Center at The Heritage Foundation.
From 1999–2022, he was a Foreign Service Officer serving in India, Fiji, Ghana, Slovakia, Togo, Washington, D.C., Marseille, and Nairobi. Prior to entering the State Department, Hankinson worked as a lawyer in London, and then taught history, English, and drama at a private school in Miami.
Hankinson holds a master’s degree in modern history from St. Andrews, Scotland, a degree from the College of Law in London, and a master’s degree in international security affairs from the National Defense University in Washington, D.C.
Immigration Law and Policy Fellow, Cornell Law School
Randel Johnson has worked on employment and immigration law and policy issues for over twenty-five 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, his 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. He was also a partner at the law firm of Seyfarth Shaw and most recently a judge on the Administrative Review Board at the Labor Department.
Senior Counsel, America First Legal Foundation
James Rogers is Senior Counsel at America First Legal Foundation, where he litigates in a number of areas, including border security, election integrity, parental rights, and administrative and constitutional law. Before joining America First Legal, from 2021 to 2022, he was Senior Litigation Counsel at the Solicitor General’s Office of the Arizona Attorney General’s Office. While there, he spearheaded lawsuits against the Biden Administration’s destructive open borders policies and its COVID19 vaccine mandates. From 2015 to 2021, James was a Foreign Service Officer at the U.S. Department of State, where he worked in the Office of the Assistant Legal Advisor for Consular Affairs, at the U.S. Consulate in Porto Alegre, Brazil, and at the U.S. Embassy in Windhoek, Namibia.
Prior to joining the Department of State, he was a commercial litigation partner at Osborn Maledon, a Phoenix-based firm with a #1 litigation ranking from Chambers and Partners. James earned a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 2009, an L.L.M. in International Law from the University of Cambridge in 2008, and a B.A., with honors, in International Studies from Brigham Young University in 2005. He is a sixth-generation Arizonan and lives in Mesa, Arizona, with his four children.
Vice President, Immigration Policy, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Patrick Shen is vice president for Immigration Policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. He helps Chamber member companies develop sensible, pro-growth immigration policies and advocates for such policies on our members’ behalf before Congress and the executive branch.
Before joining the Chamber, Shen was an immigration lawyer for over 30 years in the government and private sector. Most recently, he was a partner at a leading global business immigration law firm where he advised multinational companies on worksite compliance and represented employers from all sectors in government enforcement actions.
Earlier in his career, Shen was confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate as Special Counsel for Immigration-related Unfair Employment Practices in the Justice Department. He previously served as the policy and planning director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the chief immigration counsel for the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Shen began his government career as a trial attorney for the former Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, and the Justice Department’s Civil Division in Washington, D.C.
Shen received his undergraduate and law degrees from Brigham Young University. He was an adjunct professor at American University’s Washington College of Law and a sports reporter in Taiwan before attending law school. He became a certified emergency medical technician (EMT) shortly after September 11, 2001, and still volunteers with his local fire department in Maryland.
Partner, Holland & Hart
Chris provides strategic counsel when companies and individuals face government audits or investigations of their immigration practices. With nearly three decades of experience, he brings extensive experience and government relationships to help clients prepare for such audits and investigations and to defend them when regulators show up.
Often working with clients in times of crisis, Chris’s goal is to alleviate anxiety and put them at ease. Whether counseling a company about responding to a subpoena or defending it in a government investigation or raid, clients appreciate his pragmatic, straight forward counsel and clear plans of action.
Chris and his team work closely with in house legal and human resources departments to provide training and to help them develop effective compliance policies and internal audit and remediation plans. When significant legal concerns arise, he helps teams conduct internal investigations and formulate the best path forward to protect the interests of the company.
Chris also works with executives, operational leaders, and talent management teams to help position a company for success with effective, compliant global mobility programs. With expertise maneuvering within the complex US immigration process, he helps a wide range of companies secure employment-based non-immigrant (e.g., E, H, L, O, P, TN, etc.) and immigrant (first, second, and third preference categories) visas.
Chris also works with organizations seeking to do business outside of the United States, working closely with in-house and outside counsel to assess legal risks and develop solutions to overcome challenges with doing business abroad.
Chris’s fluency in Spanish is a value-add to clients.
Chris rejoins Holland & Hart from Ogletree Deakins where he was an equity shareholder and managed the firm’s Denver immigration practice.
Senior Counselor, The Cohen Group
Over the course of a 34-year career in the Foreign Service, Ambassador Jeffrey Davidow became one of America's most senior and well-respected diplomats. He has extensive experience in both Latin America and Africa, having served as US Ambassador to Mexico, Venezuela, and Zambia. He also headed the State Department's efforts in Latin America, serving as Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs. He retired in 2003 from the US State Department with the rank of Career Ambassador, the highest position in the Foreign Service which, by law, can be held by no more than five individuals at one time.
In 1993, President Clinton nominated Ambassador Davidow to be US Ambassador to Venezuela, a position he held until 1996. From 1996 to 1998, he was the State Department's chief policymaker for the Western Hemisphere, serving as Assistant Secretary of State for that region. President Clinton nominated Ambassador Davidow again in 1998, this time as US Ambassador to Mexico. Ambassador Davidow held this post from 1998 until 2002. After leaving Mexico in September 2002, he became a Visiting Fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government and the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies.
Ambassador Davidow joined the US Foreign Service in 1969 and began his career at the American Embassy in Guatemala. He later became the head of the liaison office at the US Embassy in Zimbabwe and later returned to the US to act as the Director of the Office of Southern African Affairs in 1985. He also pursued a fellowship at Harvard University. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan nominated him to be US Ambassador to Zambia, a position he held until 1990. After his ambassadorship to Zambia, he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Africa. Ambassador Davidow spent many years involved in multiple negotiations in southern Africa - Angola, Namibia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and South Africa itself - that helped bring relative peace to that region.
Since leaving the Foreign Service, Ambassador Davidow has served as President of the Institute of the Americas in San Diego. Established in 1983, the Institute of the Americas is a leading institution in United States-Canada-Latin America cooperation. The Institute, best known for its energy and technology programs, brings together business and government leaders and representatives of civil society in forums designed to seek ways in which public and private entities can collaborate, clarify rules and regulations so private enterprise can flourish, promote the development of infrastructure through public-private funding, and implement effective policies for managing economic growth in Latin America.
Ambassador Davidow is also an accomplished public speaker and author. He has published articles in Foreign Policy and Foreign Affairs and authored two books, one on international negotiations and the other, The US and Mexico: The Bear and the Porcupine, a bestseller in Mexico and a prominent textbook at American universities. He speaks frequently on hemispheric policy and on Mexican developments for organizations such as the North American Forum, the Trilateral Commission, the Woodrow Wilson Center, the Pacific Council, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the InterAmerican Development Bank, and many university and other groups. He also served as an adviser to President Obama for the 2009 Summit of the Americas.
A native of Massachusetts, Ambassador Davidow received a BA from the University of Massachusetts in 1965 and an MA from the University of Minnesota in 1967. He also did postgraduate work in India in 1968 on a Fulbright travel grant.
Senior Policy Analyst, Latin America and the Western Hemisphere, The Heritage Foundation
Ana Rosa Quintana leads The Heritage Foundation’s efforts on U.S. policy toward Latin America.
She has authored numerous policy studies included but not limited to Mexico, Central America, Cuba, Colombia and Venezuela. She has written articles for a wide range of outlets including The Atlantic, Real Clear World, the National Interest, The Hill, and various publications. She has presented at the State Department and other U.S. government agencies. Her work has been cited in media venues such as The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Business, The Guardian, and she has been a commentator on media outlets like Fox News, MSNBC, and Al Jazeera. She has also testified multiple times before the U.S. Congress.
Quintana holds a Master of Arts degree in global affairs and a bachelor’s degree in political science, both from Florida International University. She also received certificates in National Security, Latin American and Caribbean studies. She was a scholar in the university’s Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy and Citizenship Studies. She’s fluent in Spanish and studied in Minas Gerais, Brazil, on a scholarship sponsored by the Department of Defense.
She was formerly a National Security Fellow with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a former Penn Kemble Democracy Forum Fellow with the National Endowment for Democracy.
Prior to joining Heritage, she was a student trainee at the Defense Intelligence Agency. She also held internships at Virginia-based International Relief and Development, where she worked on rule of law issues in Latin America, and at the U.S. Agency for International Development, where she worked on civilian-military cooperation.
Of Counsel, DLA Piper LLP (US)
Harout J. Samra – a Board Certified Specialist in International Law – focuses his practice on international dispute resolution and arbitration matters, including international civil litigation in US courts.
Harout has represented clients from both the public and private sectors, including foreign governments, public officials and clients from a variety of industries. He has experience in international arbitrations administered under the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), International Centre for Dispute Resolution (ICDR), United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC), Bogota Chamber of Commerce, Madrid Court of Arbitration and International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) arbitration rules.
Harout currently serves as a member of the Florida Supreme Court Judicial Nominating Commission, by appointment of Governor Ron DeSantis. He previously served, by appointment of Governor Rick Scott, as a member of the Florida Third District Court of Appeal Judicial Nominating Commission, and was elected as Chair of the Commission from 2018-2019.
Robert M. Kimmitt is Senior International Counsel at the law firm of WilmerHale.
Both in government and the private sector, Ambassador Kimmitt has held a wide variety of senior positions at the intersection of international business, finance, law, and policy. From 2005-2009, he served as Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Treasury, where he had significant responsibility for the Department’s international agenda, including his leadership role on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) and as lead U.S. negotiator for the International Compact with Iraq.
Earlier, he was American Ambassador to Germany from 1991-1993; Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs from 1989-1991; and General Counsel to the U.S. Treasury from 1985-1987. He also served in the Reagan White House as National Security Council Executive Secretary and General Counsel from 1983-1985, with the rank of Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs.
In addition to his government service, Ambassador Kimmitt served as Executive Vice President, Global Public Policy, at Time Warner from 2001-2005. Prior to that, he was Vice Chairman and President of Commerce One, a Silicon Valley software company. He was a partner at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering from 1997-2000, a managing director of Lehman Brothers from 1993-1997, and a partner in the law firm of Sidley & Austin from 1987-1989.
Ambassador Kimmitt graduated with distinction from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1969. He served in combat with the 173rd Airborne Brigade in Vietnam from 1970-1971, earning three Bronze Star Medals, the Purple Heart, the Air Medal, and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry. He retired as a Major General in the Army Reserve. During 1997 Mr. Kimmitt was a member of the National Defense Panel, and from 1998-2005 he was a member of the Director of Central Intelligence’s National Security Advisory Panel. He also served as a member of the Panel of Arbitrators of the World Bank’s International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes.
Ambassador Kimmitt received his law degree from Georgetown University in 1977, where he was Editor in Chief of Law & Policy in International Business. From 1977-1978, he served as law clerk to Judge Edward A. Tamm of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree by Marymount University in 2009; the Distinguished Graduate Award from West Point in 2010; and the Outstanding Alumnus Award of the U.S. Army War College in 2015.
Ambassador Kimmitt is Chairman of the American Council on Germany; a member of the Supervisory Board of Lufthansa AG; a member of the International Advisory Boards of Allianz SE and The Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation; a member of the Global Advisory Board of Tokai Tokyo Financial Holdings; a board member of USA Rugby, the Atlantic Council, and the Arthur F. Burns Fellowship; and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission, and the American Academy of Diplomacy. His foreign language is German.
Founder and CEO, Lexpat Global Services
Adam Pearlman is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Lexpat Global Services. He is a National Security Law expert and a proven senior leader with experience across the U.S. Departments of Justice, Defense, and State, in the White House, and with the U.S. Federal Judiciary.
Before founding Lexpat, Mr. Pearlman served as the Senior Advisor for Legal Policy in the State Department’s Bureau of Counterterrorism. There, he counseled senior officials on matters covering the entire spectrum of programs and operations to counter terrorism and violent extremism. While participating in sensitive diplomatic engagements and helping to coordinate military operations, he also advised in the development of sanctions policy and initiatives to build legal and operational capacity in partner nations. Mr. Pearlman also managed the Bureau’s participation in federal litigation and led U.S. delegations in multilateral forums concerning criminal justice and rule of law. Separately, Mr. Pearlman supported the State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) as the contracted Senior Justice and Rule of Law Advisor in Cabo Verde, Africa. There he was the chief implementer of a Foreign Assistance program that grew eight-fold during his tenure, building host nation capacity across the law enforcement, justice sector, rule of law, anti-money laundering, and corrections disciplines.
A former Associate Deputy General Counsel of the Department of Defense, Mr. Pearlman was agency counsel for complex civil and criminal national security matters in federal and military courts. He also led the Supreme Court and appellate unit of the team dedicated to litigating classified counterterrorism cases. His earlier service in the Department of Justice spanned four litigating divisions and the Office of the Deputy Attorney General. His diverse experience included reviewing complex international transactions and mergers, and advising on immigration removal proceedings, human rights abuses, and terrorist financing investigations. Mr. Pearlman also served with distinction in Iraq as an early advisor to the Iraqi High Tribunal’s prosecution of Saddam Hussein. He was a law clerk for The Honorable Royce C. Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, and during law school interned in the White House Counsel’s Office.
Mr. Pearlman is a Senior Fellow at the National Security Institute at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School, a member of the American Bar Association’s Advisory Committee on Law and National Security, and the Editor-in-Chief of the U.S. Intelligence Community Law Sourcebook. Previously, he has been a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, National Security Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, member of the ABA’s Africa Law Initiative Council and of the Center for Strategic & International Studies’ (CSIS) Project on Nuclear Issues, vice chairman of the ABA Section of International Law’s committees on national security, and aerospace and defense, and a liaison to the Board of Directors of the ABA’s Rule of Law Initiative. He has published articles in the Harvard National Security Journal, Stanford Law & Policy Review, Intelligence & National Security, The Foreign Service Journal, Lawfare, and many other outlets.
Mr. Pearlman earned his B.A., with honors, from UCLA, and his J.D., with honors, from The George Washington University Law School, where he was a member of the International Law Review. He also earned a Master of Science of Strategic Intelligence degree from the National Intelligence University, where he was the inaugural recipient of the Kornblum Award for national security law and ethics. Mr. Pearlman is a Certified Financial Crime Specialist and holds certificates in international human rights law from the University of Oxford and in anti-corruption law from American University’s Washington College of Law. He is admitted to the State Bars of California and Virginia, as well as to the Bar of the United States Supreme Court. He speaks and reads Portuguese at the intermediate level.
Director of the Institute for Law, Science and Global Security a, Georgetown University
Professor Catherine Lotrionte is the Director of the Institute for Law, Science and Global Security and Visiting Assistant Professor of Government and Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Professor Lotrionte teaches courses on national security law, U.S. intelligence law, and international law. In addition to teaching, Professor Lotrionte coordinates research projects and events for the Institute for Law, Science and Global Security at Georgetown. She is the Institute Liaison for the Program on Nonproliferation Policy and Law, funded by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, in cooperation with the Monterey Institute for International Studies’ James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies. Professor Lotrionte is also the Director of the CyberProject. Professor Lotrionte and the Institute focus on the role of international and domestic law in recent and upcoming developments in cyber technology and cyber threats.
In 2002 she was appointed by General Brent Scowcroft to be Counsel to the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board at the White House, a position she held until 2006. In 2002 she served as a legal counsel for the Joint Inquiry Committee of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Prior to that, Professor Lotrionte was Assistant General Counsel with the Office of General Counsel at the Central Intelligence Agency, where she provided legal advice relating to information warfare, foreign intelligence and counterintelligence activities, and international terrorism. Before working in the Office of General Counsel at the Central Intelligence Agency, Professor Lotrionte served in the U.S. Department of Justice.
Professor Lotrionte earned her Ph.D. from Georgetown University and her J.D. from New York University and is the author of numerous publications, including a forthcoming book concerning U.S. national security law in the post-Cold War era. She is a frequent speaker at cyber conferences held by academic, military, government, and media organizations. She is a Life Member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Ira A. Lipman Chair, Emerging Technologies & National Security a, Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)
Adam Segal is the Ira A. Lipman chair in emerging technologies and national security and director of the Digital and Cyberspace Policy Program at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). An expert on security issues, technology development, and Chinese domestic and foreign policy, Segal was the project director for the CFR-sponsored Independent Task Force report Defending an Open, Global, Secure, and Resilient Internet. His book The Hacked World Order: How Nations Fight, Trade, Maneuver, and Manipulate in the Digital Age (PublicAffairs, 2016) describes the increasingly contentious geopolitics of cyberspace. His work has appeared in the Financial Times, The Economist, Foreign Policy, The Wall Street Journal, and Foreign Affairs, among others. He currently writes for the blog, “Net Politics.”
Before coming to CFR, Segal was an arms control analyst for the China Project at the Union of Concerned Scientists. There, he wrote about missile defense, nuclear weapons, and Asian security issues. He has been a visiting scholar at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Center for International Studies, the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, and Tsinghua University in Beijing. He has taught at Vassar College and Columbia University. Segal is the author of Advantage: How American Innovation Can Overcome the Asian Challenge (W.W. Norton, 2011) and Digital Dragon: High-Technology Enterprises in China (Cornell University Press, 2003), as well as several articles and book chapters on Chinese technology policy.
Segal has a BA and PhD in government from Cornell University, and an MA in international relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University.
Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, Georgetown University
Thomas Farr, Ph.D. is cofounder of the Religious Freedom Institute (RFI), and served as its President from its founding until January 2023. RFI is a non-profit that works to advance religious freedom for everyone, both as a source of individual human dignity and flourishing, and as a source of political stability, economic development, and international security.
A leading authority on international religious freedom, Dr. Farr served for 28 years in the U.S. Army and the U.S. Foreign Service. In 1999 he became the first director of the State Department's Office of International Religious Freedom. He subsequently directed the Witherspoon Institute's International Religious Freedom (IRF) Task Force, was a member of the Chicago World Affairs Council’s Task Force on Religion and U.S. Foreign Policy, taught at the National Defense University, and served on the Secretary of State’s IRF working group.
From 2008 – 2018 Dr. Farr was Associate Professor of the Practice of Religion and World Affairs at Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. He also founded and directed the Religious Freedom Project at Georgetown’s Berkley Center. Farr’s early work on religious freedom can be found here.
A Ph.D. in History from the University of North Carolina, Farr is a senior fellow at the Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor University. He serves as a consultant to the U.S. Catholic Bishops Conference, and as a member of the advisory councils for the Human Rights Program at Catholic University, the international division of Alliance Defending Freedom, the Alexander Hamilton Society, and the National Museum of American Religion.
His many published works include World of Faith and Freedom: Why International Religious Liberty is Vital to American National Security (Oxford University Press, 2008), a book that has shaped U.S. religious freedom legislation and foreign policy. His later work can be found here.
Farr has been recognized for his contributions to religious freedom for all, as well as to U.S. policy, including the Defender of Religious Freedom Award, Religious Freedom Institute, 2024, the Edwin Meese III Originalism and Religious Liberty Award, Alliance Defending Freedom, 2024, the 15th Annual Religious Liberty Dinner International Award, June 1, 2017. a Lifetime Achievement Recognition, In Defense of Christians, September 2015, and the Jan Karski Wellspring of Freedom Award, Institute on Religion and Public Policy, 2003.
Founder and Executive Director, Hardwired, Inc.
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