20th Immigration Law & Policy Conference -Session- The States Rise: Florida and Other Governments Expand Their Role in the Immigration Arena- Sept. 2023

A new era of state policymaking and operational action on immigration has begun, led by Texas and Florida, which set off tensions with state and local officials elsewhere by busing and flying asylum seekers and other migrants from the Texas-Mexico border into the U.S. interior. While state-level involvement in immigration policymaking is not new, the Florida and Texas decisions to drop off migrants in other jurisdictions, often with little to no notice, has raised new tensions between states and city leaders. This panel, moderated by MPI Senior Fellow Muzaffar Chishti and featuring city and NGO leaders and other experts, examines the diverse directions states are going in. Some are advancing immigrants’ rights even as Texas installs buoys on the Rio Grande and encourages other states to send their National Guards to the border. The panel also focuses on how cities such as Chicago, Washington, DC, and New York have addressed the arrivals of tens of thousands of migrants; the provision of services to these newcomers; and the fiscal impacts.

Speakers:

• Muzaffar Chishti, MPI Senior Fellow and Director of the MPI office at New York University School of Law
• Miriam Jordan, National Immigration Correspondent, The New York Times
• Abel Nuñez, Executive Director, Central American Resource Center (CARECEN)
• Beatriz Ponce de León, Deputy Mayor of Immigrant, Migrant and Refugee Rights, Office of the Mayor of Chicago
• Michael J. Wishnie, William O. Douglas Clinical Professor of Law, Yale Law School www.migrationpolicy.org