Donald Kerwin
Executive Director, Center for Migration Studies

Donald M. Kerwin, Jr. has directed the Center for Migration Studies of New York (CMS) since September 2011. He previously worked for the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC) between 1992 and 2008, serving as its Executive Director (ED) for 15 years and its interim ED for six months in late 2012 and early 2013. Upon his arrival at CLINIC in 1992, Mr. Kerwin coordinated CLINIC’s political asylum project for Haitians. CLINIC, a subsidiary of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), is a public interest legal corporation that supports a national network of several hundred charitable legal programs for immigrants. Between 2008 and 2011, Mr. Kerwin served as Vice-President for Programs at the Migration Policy Institute (MPI), where he wrote on immigration, labor standards, and refugee policy issues. He has also served as an associate fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center where he co-directed Woodstock’s Theology of Migration Project; a non-resident senior fellow at MPI; a member of the American Bar Association’s Commission on Immigration; a member of the Council on Foreign Relations’ Immigration Task Force; a board member for Jesuit Refugee Services-USA, the Capital Area Immigrant Rights Coalition, and the Border Network for Human Rights; an advisor to the USCCB Committee on Migration; and a member of numerous advisory groups. Mr. Kerwin writes and speaks extensively on immigration policy, refugee protection, access to justice, national security, and other issues.

Charles Kamasaki
Senior Cabinet Advisor, UnidosUS

Charles Kamasaki is Senior Cabinet Advisor of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR). In this capacity he serves as a senior member of the management team (“Cabinet”) at UnidosUS, formerly NCLR, the nation’s largest Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization, representing nearly 300 affiliates – community-based organizations that serve millions of Hispanic Americans annually. In addition to his advisory role on a variety of substantive and institutional issues, his current portfolio includes supervising immigration legal services and citizenship program strategies for UnidosUS Affiliates and the field, writ large; overseeing the organization’s other immigrant integration initiatives including a pilot program building an online platform for citizenship, immigration, and other small dollar loans; and selected other activities.

Previously the Executive Vice President of NCLR, Kamasaki for two decades managed the group’s research, policy analysis, and advocacy activity on civil rights, education, economic mobility, housing and community development, immigration, health, and other issues. He has also, for limited periods, overseen the organization’s education, health, leadership development and workforce development programs, supervised its resource development and public information divisions, and served as acting Chief Financial Officer.  

Kamasaki has authored, co-authored, and supervised the preparation of dozens of policy and research reports, journal articles, and editorials, testified frequently at Congressional and Administrative hearings, coordinated pro bono litigation and legal analysis, and represented the organization at research and policy conferences and symposia.  

Currently he is Treasurer of America’s Voice Education Fund, a pro-immigrant advocacy organization, and Co-Chair of the (largely dormant) Committee for Immigration Reform Implementation, a consortium of national groups building the capacity of the nonprofit sector to design and implement affordable and effective immigration legal service programs. He previously served as Chair of the National Community Reinvestment Committee, Chair of the National Immigration Law Center, and Chair of the Compliance and Enforcement Committee of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, a position with executive committee status, and on numerous other boards of directors, advisory committees, and task forces.

Since May 2012, Kamasaki has been a part-time Resident Fellow at the Migration Policy Institute, carrying out research that eventually produced Immigration Reform: The Corpse That Will Not Die (Mandel-Vilar Press, 2019), and other matters.

Most Rev. Nicholas DiMarzio
Bishop of Brooklyn

The Most Reverend Nicholas DiMarzio is a Roman Catholic bishop who has led the Diocese of Brooklyn since October 2003. He has been a forceful voice on behalf of migrants and immigrants since his Ordination to the Priesthood in 1970. Bishop DiMarzio received a master’s degree in social work from Fordham University, and a doctorate in social work research and policy from Rutgers University. In 1976, Bishop DiMarzio was appointed refugee resettlement director and the director of the Office of Migration at Catholic Community Services for the Archdiocese of Newark. In 1985, he was appointed executive director of Migration and Refugee Services for the US Catholic Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington. He frequently testified on matters affecting migrants and immigrants before the committees of the US House of Representatives.

Pope John Paul II named him Prelate of Honor by in 1986, and in 1996 he was ordained a bishop. In 1999, Bishop DiMarzio was appointed Sixth Bishop of Camden. From 2003 to 2005, Bishop DiMarzio served as the US representative on the Global Commission on International Migration, a 19-member body sponsored by the United Nations. Bishop DiMarzio also serves as board chair for the Center for Migration Studies of New York and serves on the board of trustees for the Migration Policy Institute.

Bitta Mostofi
Commissioner, Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs in New York City

Bitta is Commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs (MOIA) in New York City. Under her leadership, MOIA has created programs and policies to advance the integration of immigrant New Yorkers in to the city’s civic, economic and cultural life. Bitta spearheaded the IDNYC outreach campaign, connecting over 1.2 millions New Yorkers regardless of immigration status to government issued identification, increasing access to services and a greater sense of belonging to the city.  Other groundbreaking achievements include helping design the ActionNYC legal services program, bringing immigration legal services and education to communities through partnerships in schools, hospitals and community based organizations. In a time of intense anti-immigrant rhetoric and policy at the federal level, Bitta has led New York City’s efforts to ensure immigrant families have access to the services and resources they need, while fighting back against polices that negatively impact New Yorkers.

Bitta has been a passionate immigrant and human rights advocate throughout her career. After graduating law school from DePaul University in Chicago, she practiced civil rights law with a particular focus on the discriminatory impact of immigration practices on Muslim and Middle Eastern immigrants. She later joined Safe Horizon as Senior Staff attorney and continued her legal practice representing immigrant crime victims, asylees, and others in both affirmative and defensive petitions before the immigration court. Bitta led the organization’s advocacy work on behalf of immigrant crime victims seeking U visas, including before the City and Department of Homeland Security.

Bitta also has a background in community organizing, increasing awareness of global human rights injustices and the plight of refugees from Iran and Iraq. Bitta is the proud daughter of Iranian immigrants.