In this week’s episode, BPC Senior Advisor Theresa Cardinal Brown and Associate Director Jack Malde round up some recent news in US immigration policy from the end of 2024 and the first weeks of 2025. They discuss recent disagreements within the Republican party on H-1B visas, President-elect Trump’s immigration position nominations, and where things stand on the concept of “mass deportations.” They also cover Congressional updates including potential action on immigration through the budget reconciliation process, the Congressional Review Act, and the House of Representatives passing the Laken Riley Act. 

In this week’s episode, BPC Senior Advisor Theresa Cardinal Brown talks to three reporters about the role that immigration played in the recent presidential and congressional elections. Theresa is joined by Myah Ward from Politico, Priscilla Alvarez from CNN, and Marianne LeVine from the Washington Post. They discuss how immigration featured in various campaigns, how pivotal immigration was in determining the election results, and how this compares to previous elections. 

In this week’s episode, we’re re-releasing a conversation from May 2022. The leak of the Supreme Court draft decision that would overturn the seminal Roe v. Wade abortion case has sent shockwaves through the country and raises questions and implications for other long-standing precedent Supreme Court decisions, including Plyler v. Doe, a 1982 decision that ruled that undocumented immigrant children could not be excluded from K through 12 public schools. Texas Governor Greg Abbott has expressed interest in resurrecting the case and challenging the ruling. Leon Fresco, an immigration attorney at Holland & Knight, and Melissa Lazarin, Senior Advisor for K-12 Policy at the Migration Policy Institute’s National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy, join to discuss this high-stakes court battle.

In this week’s episode, we’re re-releasing a conversation from November 2021. Every year millions of families across the country gather to celebrate that quintessential American holiday: Thanksgiving. It is a story of immigration. But how do the millions of recently-arrived immigrants to this country view this holiday? Theresa Cardinal Brown and Sadikshya Nepal are joined by Rachel Peric, Executive Director of Welcoming America, and several BPC staff members to discuss how families combine traditions to make this holiday their own.

In this week’s episode, BPC Senior Advisor Theresa Cardinal Brown delves into history and reality of how immigrants vote in the United States. Theresa is joined by Rachel Orey, Director of the Bipartisan Policy Center Elections Project, to discuss current legislation that defines the eligibility for voting and protects against non-citizen voting. Then, Theresa welcomes Irene Bloemraad, Professor at the University of British Columbia and Co-director of the Centre for Migration Studies, to dive into history of different immigrant groups to the United States and how they exercise their voting rights when they become citizens.  

In this week’s episode, BPC Senior Advisor Theresa Cardinal Brown discusses how immigrant rights organizations and other emergency response organizations are assisting immigrants and their families affected by recent hurricanes Helene and Milton, as well as similar past natural disasters in the United States. Theresa is joined by Zach Wolgemuth, Director of Emergency Preparedness, Response, and Recovery at Church World Service (CWS), along with his colleague Mabel Hernandez, Deputy Director of Operations for the South East Region of the United States. Then, Theresa welcomes Cesar Espinosa, Co-Founder and Executive Director of FIEL (Familias Inmigrantes y Estudiantes en la Lucha), the largest immigrant-led civil rights organization in Texas, to discuss the importance of networks and immigrant leadership in supporting their communities after disasters. 

In this week’s episode, BPC Senior Advisor Theresa Cardinal Brown covers how DHS and USCIS are incorporating AI into their immigration work.  Theresa is joined by Paromita Shah, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Just Futures Law, who organized a letter signed by over 140 immigrant and civil rights groups to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas urging him to end the use of AI. Theresa and Jack Malde then discuss the inauguration of Mexico’s first female president and the challenge of distinguishing who is legally in the United States in the current era. 

In this week’s episode, we focus on the increasingly salient issue of climate migration, delving into Climate Migration Council “A Compendium on Climate Mobility”. BPC Senior Advisor Theresa Cardinal Brown talks to Shana Tabak, the Director of Immigration at Emerson Collective and a Senior Advisor to the Climate Migration Council, and Elizabeth Ferris, Director of the Institute for the Study of International Migration in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. We cover the issue of climate migration, the work of the Climate Migration Council, and the solutions needed. 

https://www.climatemigrationcouncil.org/compendium

In this week’s episode, we’re re-releasing a conversation from September 2021. BPC Senior Advisor Theresa Cardinal Brown reflects on how the 9/11 terrorist attacks reshaped our immigration system, and what it looked like before that pivotal day. 

In this week’s episode, BPC Senior Advisor Theresa Cardinal Brown talks to Michelle Hackman, a US immigration reporter at the Wall Street Journal, about a recent decline in border crossings and to what extent we can credit the Biden Administration and its cooperation with Mexico. Then, Theresa and BPC Associate Director Jack Malde discuss the Biden Administration’s “Keeping Families Together” program which grants parole in place to certain noncitizen spouses and noncitizen stepchildren of U.S. citizens, and was implemented this week. Theresa and Jack cover how the program may work and some potential concerns. 

Wall St. Journal Border Reporting: How the U.S. and Mexico Drove Border Crossings Down in an Election Year - WSJ 

Parole in Place for Spouses of U.S. Citizens: Keeping Families Together | USCIS 

Opening (00:00)

Michelle Hackman and Border Crossing Declines (01:03)

"Keeping Families Together" (42:00)

Credits (01:01:20)

In this week’s episode, BPC Senior Advisor Theresa Cardinal Brown delves into new U.S. Immigration data findings, covered in recent reports by the Pew Research Center and Congressional Budget Office. First, Mark Hugo Lopez, the director of race and ethnicity research at the Pew Research Center, joins us to discuss new estimates and demographics of the foreign-born in the United States. Then, BPC Associate Director Jack Malde discusses with Theresa the Congressional Budget Office’s new research on how a recent immigration surge has affected the federal budget and national economy. 

Key findings about U.S. immigrants | Pew Research Center - https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/07/22/key-findings-about-us-immigrants/

Effects of the Immigration Surge on the Federal Budget and the Economy | Congressional Budget Office - https://www.cbo.gov/publication/60165