According to a new book by Ruth Milkman, the frequently heard argument that immigrants undercut wages and conditions for US workers gets it exactly backwards: deteriorating wage levels and working conditions drive US workers from jobs that employers then seek to fill with immigrant labor. Professor Milkman joins Alex Aleinikoff for a discussion of Immigrant Labor and the New Precariat.

Jessica Goudeau discusses her new book, After the Last Border, in which she tells the stories of two refugee women--Mu Naw from Myanmar and Hasna from Syria--and the promise and problems of the US resettlement program.

Law professors Adam Cox (NYU) and Cristina Rodriguez (Yale) offer a revisionist view of presidential authority in their new book The President and Immigration Law. Through authority delegated by federal statutes as well as power to decide who among a population of more than 10 million undocumented migrants should be removed or permitted to stay, the President, they argue, is in fact a "co-principal" with Congress in the making of U.S. immigration law and policy.

For migrants, the border is no longer just a physical place at the edge of a country: states have found ways to push their borders outward and collapse them inward, and to rely on new technology to monitor migrants wherever they are located. These developments challenge theories of state sovereignty and force rethinking of traditional debates in migration studies. Ayelet Shachar, law professor at the University of Toronto, discusses her new book, The Shifting Border.

NYU Professor Alina Das discusses with Alex Aleinikoff her book No Justice in the Shadows: How America Criminalizes Immigrants--a powerful critique of this nation's mass deportation machinery and how it arose out of, and reflects, America's history of racially exclusionary immigration policies.

How did COVID-19 provide the Trump Administration the ‘silver bullet’ to accomplish long-standing immigration goals that in fact had little to with the pandemic? And why has COVID had a disproportionate impact on immigrant communities?

Trump immigration policies have spread fear through immigrant communities, threatening deportation of long-resident migrants and inflicting deep harms on family members who remain in the United States. Journalist Julia Preston and NYC Commissioner of Immigrant Affairs Bitta Mostofi assess the consequences.

Two Presidents have taken actions with dramatic consequences for more than 700,000 "Dreamers." Cecelia Munoz, domestic policy advisor to President Obama, discusses how DACA came to be; law professor Michael Olivas explains the Supreme Court opinion invalidating President Trump's order to end DACA; and DACA recipient Daniela Alulema tells us how these actions have affected her life.

Author and journalist Hector Tobar joins Alex Aleinikoff and Deb Amos to discuss the how "the Wall" and Latino immigration are shaping understanding of race and belonging in the United States.

How much of Trump's border wall has been built? Will it stop undocumented migration? What do people living in the border region think about it? Alex Aleinikoff and Deb Amos talk with Washington Post reporter Nick Miroff and DW Gibson, author of the recently published 14 Miles: Building the Border Wall.

In an attempt to deter the arrival of families seeking asylum at the southwest border, the Trump Administration adopted a policy of criminally prosecuting parents and separating them from their children. Dara Lind (ProPublica) and Dr. Ranit Mishori (Physicians for Human Rights) discuss these extraordinary actions--the public outrage they engendered and the harms they inflicted.

The New Yorker's Jonathan Blitzer describes the avalanche of policies the Trump Administration has adopted to stem the flow of Central American asylum seekers to the US. Gaspar Cobo and Franciso Chavez, two Guatemalan asylum-seekers stopped at the border for more than a year, describe their reasons for coming and the difficulties they face in getting their claims heard.

In a range of actions of startling scope, President Trump has denied entry to persons from a number of Muslim-majority countries and African states and has dramatically decreased the number of refugees admitted to the US. Using the justification of the COVID-19 crisis, he has now extended entry bans to most persons eligible to enter as immigrants. Alex Aleinikoff and Deb Amos discuss the impact of these unprecedented orders with a journalist, a refugee and the director of a refugee...

Walls, a ban on Muslims, a promise to end DACA:  How did immigration become a central feature of Donald Trump's campaign for President? Alex Aleinikoff and Deb Amos talk with New York Times reporters Michael Shear and Julie Hirschfeld Davis who share their first hand accounts.

On June 30, Tempest Tossed returns with a special 8-part series: Entry Denied: Immigration policy in the time of Trump.  Co-hosted by Alex Aleinikoff and Deb Amos, Entry Denied examines the dramatic impact of Trump policies on migrants, refugees, immigrant communities and the nation.

Alex Aleinikoff talks with Lucas Guttentag on the legality of Trump orders to ban the admission of immigrants and asylum seekers, and with Monette Zard and Ian Kysel about human rights principles that protect migrants even as states take strong measures to combat COVID-19.

Migrants workers fill jobs deemed essential in the response to the pandemic. They are also disproportionately represented in the most hard hit occupations. Julia Gelatt (Migration Policy Institute) and Marisol Orihuela and Muneer Ahmad (Yale Law School) join Alex Aleinikoff in two conversations on migrants and the COVID-19 crisis.

#AbolishIce has helped define the immigration debate in the U.S. It is a rallying cry by those opposed to Trump Administration policies and heavy-handed tactics of immigration officers. It has also been used as a cudgel against immigration advocates, who some of the Rights have claimed want "open borders." Hiroshi Motomura and Azadeh Shahshahani help us understand the meaning, promise and perils of the Abolish Ice movement. This episode was co-produced by Clara Beccaro.

They came, they built, and they thrived in the Bronx.  Now they are under attack again. Alexis Francisco, a community organizer with the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, and Angela Fernandez, New York State Human Rights Commissioner, tell us how immigrant communities displaced from their home countries to the United States fight for the right to remain in their homes in the Bronx.

"No refugees need apply" might well be the slogan of the Trump Administration. The Administration has drastically reduced refugee resettlement, pushed back asylum-seekers to Mexico, and pressured other countries to solve the US's problems. David Miliband, President of the International Rescue Committee, discusses the scope and impact of the Trump policies and global trends on displacement.

The New Yorker’s immigration reporter Jonathan Blitzer joins host Alex Aleinikoff and journalist Ladane Nasseri to discuss U.S. border policy, the resignation of Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Kevin McAleenan and the Democrats’ difficult balancing act on immigration.

Tempest Tossed returns! Catalina Cruz, the first DREAMER in the New York State Assembly, joins Alex Aleinikoff to talk about immigration policy, differences between campaigning and governing, and how she advocates for her Queens, NY district and community.

Are we made to migrate? What makes us move and how do we do it? We answer these questions and more with an anatomist, an endurance athlete, and a forensic anthropologist, as we take a closer look at the US/Mexico border from a new perspective--one of basic human need and physical adaptation.

How did the Statue of Liberty become a symbol for immigration in the United States? What does it stand for today? In this episode we talk with Professor Mae Ngai about the Statue’s history, and how its meaning in the American public mind has changed over time. We also speak with activist Patricia Okoumou, who climbed the pedestal of the Statue one year ago this week, in protest of the Trump Administration's child separation policy. She explains the reasons for her act of civil disobedience.