[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 8 (Friday, January 22, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Page S148]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 NOMINATION OF T. ALEXANDER ALEINIKOFF

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, at the end of this month, the dean of the 
Georgetown University Law Center, T. Alexander Aleinikoff, will resign 
his post to accept the highly distinguished appointment of United 
Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees. I have come to know Dean 
Aleinikoff well in the 5 years he has served as the dean at my law 
school alma mater. I am very proud of the dean's appointment and look 
forward to working with him in his new position.
  Dean Aleinikoff has devoted his entire professional career to public 
service on behalf of refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrants. After 
graduating from Yale Law School and serving as a clerk to the Honorable 
Edward Weinfeld, U.S. district judge for the Southern District of New 
York, Dean Aleinikoff served as an attorney advisor in the Department 
of Justice and later as General Counsel and Executive Associate 
Commissioner for Programs to the Immigration and Nationality Service. 
Dean Aleinikoff devoted years to teaching refugee and immigration law, 
both at the University of Michigan and at Georgetown University Law 
Center, where he was appointed dean in 2004. He also served as the 
cochair of the Immigration Policy Review Team for President Barack 
Obama's transition in late 2008 and early 2009.
  With 34 million refugees and internally displaced persons of concern 
to the Office of the High Commissioner, Dean Aleinikoff's expertise and 
management skills will be required on a daily basis. I have long fought 
to expand the relief available to refugees around the world and to 
asylum seekers who turn to the United States for protection. I know 
that we share these goals, and I am confident that Dean Aleinikoff will 
ably rise to the challenges he will face, however daunting they may be.
  I have worked closely with Dean Aleinikoff on a variety of issues 
throughout his tenure as dean and greatly admire his intellect and 
commitment to justice. The quality of the Georgetown legal education is 
extraordinary, and the institution's role as a national leader in law 
and policy has never been more prominent. As a graduate of the law 
school, I am sorry to see Dean Aleinikoff depart, but his work on 
behalf of refugees could not be more important or more timely.
  I thank Dean Aleinikoff for his extraordinary leadership of the 
Georgetown University Law Center and wish him great success in this 
challenging but critically important new role.

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