This Week In Immigration

In this week’s episode, BPC Senior Advisor Theresa Cardinal Brown chats with Mark Hetfield, President & CEO at HIAS and Claire Holba, an Immigration Policy Fellow at the Niskanen Center, about the U.S. Refugee Resettlement Program. Mark tells us about the experience and challenges of refugee resettlement agencies on the ground, while Claire dives into the data around the Resettlement Program, highlighting something of a recent revival in its fortunes. Niskanen Center: New data confirms that the U.S. rebuilt the refugee resettlement program HIAS – Welcome the stranger. Protect the refugee.  

In this week’s episode, BPC Senior Advisor Theresa Cardinal Brown runs through the latest negotiations on Capitol Hill for a potential border security deal. If Congress fails to reach a deal, we could see a government shutdown. Then, Theresa and BPC Senior Policy Analyst Jack Malde interview Lindsay Milliken, an immigration fellow at the Institute for Progress, who is lead author of a new report detailing a data-driven method to identify workforce shortages and update DOL’s Schedule A Shortage Occupation List. Institute for Progress Research Report: Help Wanted: Modernizing the Schedule A Shortage Occupation List In this episode: (00:00) Opening (01:10) Theresa on the latest negotiations on border security (18:33) Lindsay Milliken on workforce shortages and Schedule A

In this week’s episode, BPC Senior Advisor Theresa Cardinal Brown chats with three exceptional national and local immigration reporters to understand what it’s like to cover immigration at a time of rising migration, increased humanitarian challenges, and a polarized political climate. Camilo Montoya-Galvez of CBS News, Maria Sacchetti of the Washington Post and Uriel Garcia of the Texas Tribune take us through their experiences covering national and local immigration developments over the past year, both on the ground and from a distance. Listen to hear all about the policy, politics, and humanity of covering immigration in the United States. 

In this week’s episode, new host Jack Malde chats with four Distinguished Immigration Scholars at Cornell Law School on their new white paper “Immigration Reform: A Path Forward”. Stephen Yale-Loehr, Randel Keith Johnson, Charles Kamasaki, and BPC’s very own Theresa Cardinal Brown take us through important reforms to border management and asylum policy, worker programs, and DREAMer protections. While large, comprehensive immigration reform is unlikely to move forward in Congress soon, certain targeted reforms are both urgently needed and potentially achievable. Cornell Law School Migration & Human Rights Program: Migration & Human Rights Program - Cornell Law School  Cornell Law School Immigration Reform: A Path Forward white paper: Cornell-immigration-white-paper-10-5-23.pdf 

In this week’s episode, guest host Theresa Cardinal Brown and BPC Senior Policy Analyst Jack Malde discuss BPC’s new report which quantifies the tremendous economic benefits on offer if Congress were to act to clear green card backlogs. Then, Theresa and Jack discuss new projections from the Census Bureau which show that the U.S. population is set to begin declining in the second half of this century, underlining the importance of immigration for continued growth and prosperity.

In this week’s episode, host Hanadi Jordan and Theresa Cardinal Brown unpack President Biden’s recent Executive Order on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the efforts of the administration to attract and retain AI talent. Then, we rebroadcast clips from a past interview with economist, veteran and scholar Tim Kane, who speaks about why America is “The Immigrant Superpower” (the title of his book) and how immigrants are vital for our national security.

Economic Policy Program Director and former OMB official Rachel Snyderman joins podcast host Hanadi Jordan and Senior Advisor Theresa Cardinal Brown to discuss President Biden's border wall plans and whether he was legally obligated to expand the wall under appropriations allocated in 2019.  Then, Theresa covers the ACLU-Biden Administration’s settlement with the ACLU in a class action lawsuit over parent-child separations under then-President Trump’s “zero tolerance policy.”

Given recent efforts in Congress to avoid a government shutdown, this episode we are revisiting Episode 141 of This Week in Immigration, where Theresa Cardinal Brown and Laura Hall of BPC Action walk through the federal government's budget and appropriations process, how the immigration system is funded, and what happens in a government shutdown. 

In this week’s episode, host Hanadi Jordan and Theresa Cardinal Brown discuss the federal government’s lawsuit against Texas Governor Greg Abbot over anti-migrant buoys and the growing tensions between New York City Mayor Eric Adams and the Biden administration concerning migrant arrivals. Then, the pair discuss what a government shutdown means for DHS.  

Declining birth rates and an aging population present a serious demographic problem for the U.S. with long-term economic consequences. BPC Research Analyst Justis Antonioli and Associate Director of Economic Policy Ben Gitis join the podcast to discuss BPC’s latest report, The Demographic Transition: An Overview of America’s Aging Population and Immigration’s Mediating Role, which examines research on the role of immigration in strengthening the labor force and supporting the economy. Then, podcast regular Theresa Cardinal Brown breaks down the Justice Department’s lawsuit against Space X over discriminatory hiring practices.

On today’s episode, we feature audio from our most recent event on challenges with the current legal immigration system and potential pathways for reform. Moderated by Bloomberg Law’s Andrew Kreighbaum, Jon Baselice with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Martin Kim with Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC, David Bier with Cato Institute, and Dip Patel with Improve The Dream assess issues raised by the system’s current status quo and share their best ideas for reform.

In this episode we welcome Representative Salud Carbajal to tell us all about his bipartisan bill, the Protect Patriot Parents Act, which would make parents of U.S. military service members eligible for green cards, preventing potential deportations or separations of military families. After this, podcast regular Theresa Cardinal Brown breaks down the latest border numbers and recent Biden administration restrictions on who is eligible to apply for asylum.

To mark a very special podcast milestone—our 150th episode—podcast regular Theresa Cardinal Brown sits down with Rep. Maria Salazar (R-FL) to discuss the Dignity Act. Then, Theresa and host Hanadi Jordan reflect on six years of the podcast. Featuring clips from some of our favorite episodes, we cover the highlights, the challenges, and hopes for the future!

In this edition, Julie Stufft, deputy assistant secretary for visa services at the Bureau of Consular Affairs at the State Department, walks listeners through life in visa services. Joined by podcast regular Theresa Cardinal Brown, Stuff covers her career in the State Department, current challenges in visa services, and recent reports of State Department efforts to streamline visa applications for Indian nationals.

Having trouble keeping up with key immigration litigation? This latest episode of TWII has you covered with another edition of The Gavel! Joined by podcast regular Theresa Cardinal Brown, Cornell Law Professor Steve Yale-Loeher breaks down the Supreme Court’s latest decision to uphold the Biden administration’s deportation priorities in U.S. v. Texas. Then, both podcast guests walk listeners through upcoming cases concerning the future of the DACA program and the administration’s new asylum restrictions.

To mark graduation season, we’re covering immigrants and higher education this episode. Miriam Feldblum, executive director of the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, joins to discuss the Presidents’ Alliance and the concerns of higher education institutions regarding immigrant students and scholars. Then, podcast regular Theresa Cardinal Brown provides an update on the border post-Title 42, and why the numbers of encounters aren’t what many predicted.

Today, we sit down with Jon Baselice, vice president of immigration policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, to discuss the Chamber’s recently launched LIBERTY campaign which calls for both border and legal immigration reform. Then, as we start summer and all the activities that go along with it, podcast regular Theresa Cardinal Brown walks listeners through who seasonal workers are, the visa process these workers rely on, and challenges in meeting the workforce needs of seasonal employers.

On today’s episode, we examine the pause on nursing visa applications, overall health care workforce issues, and the impact of these challenges on the health care industry. Lisa Harootunian, BPC associate director of health policy, joins alongside “This Week” regular Theresa Cardinal Brown to break down the workforce shortage and how immigration can be part of the solution.

How do immigrants support U.S. competitiveness? On today’s episode, we recap our latest event, “National Security and Competitiveness: Can Skilled Immigration Help?” with audio from the webinar. Our panel includes Kai Hirabayashi, senior manager of public policy at Amazon, Divanysh Kaushik, associate director at the Federation of American Scientists, Margaret Stock, attorney at Cascadia Cross-Border Law Group, and BPC’s Dane Stangler, director of strategic initiatives.

We mark the end of tax season with a discussion on taxes and immigrants—do undocumented immigrants file taxes and, if so, how and why? We cover the consequences and challenges for undocumented immigrants who file and what policy changes have been proposed to address the issue. Then, we catch listeners up on the latest news in the immigration world, from the return to pre-pandemic levels of U.S. immigration to new border bills from House Republicans to the impending expiration of Title 42.