Mobilizing Coherent Community Responses to Changing Immigration Policies | Understanding Immigration Enforcement in the Age of Trump

July 7, 2017

From June 7-9, 2017, scholars, researchers, community organizers, service providers, elected officials, leaders of faith communities, immigrant advocates, and others, joined together for a 3-day conference on how diverse communities are working together to protect, empower and meet the needs of immigrants and refugees in an era of heightened uncertainty. The conference examined “whole of community” responses to protecting and empowering immigrants and offered models and best practices for moving forward amidst numerous challenges.

The event was hosted by the Center for Migration Studies of New York (CMS), Cabrini Center for Immigrant Legal Assistance of Catholic Charities of Galveston-Houston, the Houston Immigration Legal Services Collaborative, and the South Texas College of Law Houston.

This video features the session entitled, “Understanding Immigration Enforcement in the Age of Trump.” This panel provided a primer on the US immigration enforcement system and its impact on families and communities. It included short presentations by scholars and researchers on different aspects of the statutes and policies which serve as the groundwork for the new administration’s Executive orders on immigration, expanded detention, and federal, state and local immigration enforcement partnerships. Panelists offered recommendations for reform of the immigration enforcement system and spoke to how scholarship and research can be used to inform and strengthen whole-of-community responses to immigrants. The session is meant to provide an evidence-based foundation for much of the conversation that followed.

Moderator: Wafa Abdin, Vice President of Immigration and Refugee Services, Cabrini Center for Immigrant Legal Assistance of Catholic Charities of Galveston-Houston

Michael Coon, Assistant Professor of Economics, The University of Tampa

Emily Ryo, Associate Professor of Law and Sociology, University of Southern California Gould School of Law