Crossing Borders:

A Legal Training for Reporters and Artists

California Lawyers for the Arts San Diego is dedicated to serving our bi-national region by providing relevant programming and resources in support of our various arts sectors including but not limited to the transborder community. 

This month we are delighted and honored to host Nora Benavidez of PEN America for a legal training designed for those who want to learn more about their constitutional and privacy rights while working at the US-Mexico border. Topics will include First and Fourth Amendment issues, privacy considerations for those subject to secondary screenings, and other legal issues when dealing with law enforcement at the border.

*Note: This workshop will be hosted online via ZOOM. Participants will receive a link providing access to join the meeting shortly before the event begins. 

Nora Benavidez is the director of PEN America’s U.S. Free Expression Programs, where she guides the organization’s national advocacy agenda working with writers, legislators, and activists to defend press freedom where journalists are targeted for their work, to combat disinformation which threatens to erode engagement in democratic institutions, to support protest rights and the ability of dissenting voices to speak up, and to fight back against forms of censorship that chill writers. ​Benavidez is a lawyer by training and, prior to joining PEN America, she worked as a civil and human rights litigator. She has represented victims of unconstitutional police practices, First Amendment infringements, discrimination in public schools, and voting rights violations.