Event
Description
As we look toward the 2024 U.S. presidential election, immigration will be a central issue, both among candidates and the electorate.
Much of today’s immigration policy has been shaped by Congressional gridlock and the increased role of the executive branch in shaping the country’s immigration agenda. In President Biden’s first three years, he signed 535 immigration-related executive actions. Particularly noteworthy is his administration's use of parole for both migrants residing in the United States and those coming into the country, and ongoing controversy over the handling of the U.S.-Mexico border “crisis.” And while Biden sought to take action to strengthen the Obama Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, its fate, and that of other temporary immigration protections, will most likely be decided by the Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, local communities have felt the impact of nearly two decades of heavy immigration enforcement that has separated families and sown anxiety, as well as a more recent influx of newcomers that has placed pressure on local infrastructures.
This symposium brings together policy analysts, immigration scholars, and representatives of non-profit advocacy organizations to discuss immigration policies and their impact, as well as the role of academic research in informing the broader debate.
Symposium Schedule
12:45 PM Lunch
(A light lunch will be served.)
1:00 PM Opening Remarks
Professor of Sociology & Director of the Center for the Study of Ethnicity, Race, and Immigration, University of Pennsylvania
Richard Perry University Professor of Sociology and Education, University of Pennsylvania
1:15 PM - 2:45 PM
PANEL 1: CONTEMPORARY IMMIGRATION POLICY
AND THE ROLE OF IMMIGRATION IN AMERICA’S FUTURE
Moderator: Michael Jones-Correa, President’s Distinguished Professor of Political Science, University of Pennsylvania
Panelists:
Ariel Ruiz Soto, Senior Policy Analyst, Migration Policy Institute (MPI)
Dara Lind, Senior Fellow, American Immigration Council
Angela Kelley, Chief Advisor, American Immigration Lawyers Association
This panel offers a bird’s eye view of the Biden administration’s policies, the current debate, and what immigration policy might look like under different scenarios. What is the future of presidential executive actions? And is there hope for legislative solutions?
3:00 PM - 4:30 PM
PANEL 2: THE IMPACT OF IMMIGRATION POLICIES ON LOCAL COMMUNITIES
Moderator: Fernando Chang-Muy, Thomas O’Boyle Adjunct Professor of Law, University of Pennsylvania
Panelists:
Margie McHugh, Director, National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy, Migration Policy Institute (MPI)
Sarah Paoletti, Practice Professor of Law, University of Pennsylvania and Director, Transnational Legal Clinic
Anne Janet Hernandez, Senior Supervising Attorney, Southern Poverty Law Center
This panel brings together immigrant rights advocates and scholars to shed light on how current policies are experienced by local communities and institutions.
5:00 PM - 6:30 PM
BOOK TALK: DRAWING DEPORTATION: ART AND RESISTANCE AMONG IMMIGRANT CHILDREN
by SILVIA RODRIGUEZ VEGA
Drawing Deportation: Art and Resistance among Immigrant Children
Young immigrant children often do not have the words to express how their lives are shaped by issues of immigration, legal status, and state-sanctioned violence - but are able to communicate its effects on them using art. Based on ten years of work with immigrant children as young as six in Arizona and California, Silvia Rodriguez Vega provides accounts of children’s challenges with deportation and family separation during the Obama and Trump administrations. While much of the literature on immigrant children depicts them as passive, when viewed through this lens they appear as agents of their own stories.
Co-sponsored by the Penn Migration Initiative (PMI); the Population Studies Center (PSC); and the Center for the Study of Ethnicity, Race, and Immigration (CSERI)