More than a dozen immigration law attorneys have requested the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) to rescind White House Domestic Policy Council Director Cecilia Muñoz's keynote speaker invitation.

AILA announced Muñoz will deliver the keynote address for its Annual Conference on Immigration Law, set to take place between June 17 and June 20. Immigration lawyers, and a petition, want ALIA to take back the invitation.

In a letter addressed to AILA Executive Director Crystal Williams, Muñoz's decisions have "intentionally harmed" hundreds of immigrant children. The immigration lawyers said Muñoz "is directly responsible for causing children to suffer severe and prolonged physical and mental harm in detention centers in Artesia, New Mexico; Leesport, Pennsylvania; Karnes City, Texas; and Dilley, Texas."

According to two lawyers, Bryan Johnson and Ala Amoachi -- both scheduled to speak for the conference's "UACs, Guardianships, and Other Minor Issues" panel -- wrote Muñoz supported Obama's policy preventing Central American children from escaping violence in their native countries and referred to her as "one of the principal architects of shocking, widespread, and ongoing human rights violations against vulnerable children" fleeing the region. Due to the maltreatment of the immigrant children, Amoachi and Johnson said Muñoz should not be recognized as AILA's keynote speaker.

"Family detention is not even the worst of Ms. Muñoz's acts," continued Amoachi and Johnson's letter, undersigned by 17 additional lawyers. "Starting last summer, she and the White House were desperate to do anything to stop Central American children from escaping into the U.S. in such high numbers. President Obama went so far as to request Congress to gut the 2008 Trafficking and Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) so that unaccompanied children from Central America could be detained pending deportation without even seeing an immigration judge."

Williams responded to the lawyers, writing that AILA's purpose for the keynote speaker as "one of several tools to promote government accountability." She noted that many of AILA's previous keynote speakers have been government officials and "many of these speakers have not been friends, and have engaged in practices anathema to all that AILA stands for."

According to Williams' response, what matters are not Muñoz's private or public actions, but her senior office role in the White House. Recognizing that the White House must be held accountable for its immigration-related decisions, Williams said the method for accountability is have a White House official in front of "a couple thousand immigration lawyers," who she noted "can't be fooled by pretty words or general sound bits and slogans."

Williams concluded, "So, no, we will not be disinviting Ms. Muñoz. We will have her come and speak to our conference. We will behave professionally, but we will also challenge her to account for the [Obama] administration's actions. Our mission as an organization requires no less."

In response to Williams, Johnson wrote, "I am not convinced."

AILA and Johnson and Amoachi's office did not immediately return Latin Post's request for further statements.

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