Donald Kerwin

Donald Kerwin is a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Migration Policy Institute, where he served as Vice President for Programs. Mr. Kerwin is Executive Director of the Center for Migration Studies, an educational institute of the Congregation of the Missionaries of St. Charles, Scalabrinians, that studies migration policy issues and safeguards the dignity and rights of migrants, refugees and newcomers.

During his MPI tenure, Mr. Kerwin coordinated MPI’s national and international programs, and wrote and spoke extensively on legalization, refugee protection, labor standards enforcement, detention, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and executive action on immigration. Prior to his MPI tenure, he worked for more than 16 years at the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC), serving as Executive Director for nearly 15 years. Upon his arrival at CLINIC in 1992, Mr. Kerwin directed CLINIC's political asylum project for Haitians.

He became CLINIC's Executive Director in December 1993 and during his tenure, CLINIC coordinated the nation's largest political asylum, detainee services, immigration appeals, and naturalization programs. Mr. Kerwin is a member of the American Bar Association's Commission on Immigration and a past member of the Council on Foreign Relations' Immigration Task Force. He serves on the Board of Directors of Jesuit Refugee Services-USA and the Border Network for Human Rights, and is an Associate Fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center.  He is a 1984 graduate of Georgetown University and a 1989 graduate of the University of Michigan Law School.