Muzaffar Chishti
Senior Fellow
Director, MPI office at NYU School of Law
Muzaffar Chishti, a lawyer, is an MPI Senior Fellow and Director of the MPI office at New York University School of Law. His work focuses on U.S. immigration policy at the federal, state, and local levels; the intersection of labor and immigration law; immigration enforcement; civil liberties; and immigrant integration.
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Prior to joining MPI, Mr. Chishti was Director of the Immigration Project of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial & Textile Employees (UNITE).
Mr. Chishti serves on the board of the New York Immigration Coalition. He has served as Chairman of the Boards of Directors of the National Immigration Forum and the National Immigration Law Center, as a member of the American Bar Association’s Coordinating Committee on Immigration, and on the board of the Asian American Federation.
Mr. Chishti has testified extensively on immigration policy issues before Congress and is frequently quoted in the media. In 1992, as part of a U.S. team, he assisted the Russian Parliament in drafting its legislation on forced migrants and refugees. He is a 1994 recipient of the New York State Governor's Award for Outstanding Asian Americans and a 1995 recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor.
Mr. Chishti was educated at St. Stephen's College, Delhi; the University of Delhi; Cornell Law School; and the Columbia School of International Affairs.
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Recent Activity
At the 15th annual Immigration Law and Policy Conference, held in October 2018, leading experts and government officials discussed the role that immigration is playing in the mid-term elections; how the courts are handling key immigration questions; and recent changes in the U.S. asylum system, border and interior enforcement, and regulations surrounding legal immigration.
Unauthorized Immigrants with Criminal Convictions: Who Might Be a Priority for Removal?