"The Current State of Immigration Law and Policy in the United States"

Open Lectures Winter 2020

  • Date: Jan 22, 2020
  • Time: 02:15 PM - 04:00 PM (Local Time Germany)
  • Speaker: Hiroshi Motomura (UCLA, Los Angeles)
  • HIROSHI MOTOMURA is the Susan Westerberg Prager Distinguished Professor of Law at the School of Law at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). A leading scholar and teacher of immigration and citizenship, he is the author of many influential articles and two award-winning books: Americans in Waiting (Oxford 2006) and Immigration Outside the Law (Oxford 2014), and a co-author of two casebooks widely used in U.S. law school courses: Immigration and Citizenship: Process and Policy (8th ed. West 2016), and Forced Migration: Law and Policy (2d ed. West 2013). He is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Immigration Law Center, founding director of the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network (RMIAN), and a former member of the American Bar Association Commission on Immigration. He is now at work on a new book, The New Migration Law, with the support of a 2018 Guggenheim Fellowship.
  • Location: MPI-MMG, Hermann-Föge-Weg 11, Göttingen
  • Room: Library Hall
"The Current State of Immigration Law and Policy in the United States"


For more details please contact adomeit(at)mmg.mpg.de.

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Each change of presidential administration in the United States brings changes to immigration law and policy, but the scope and depth of changes during the Trump administration is unprecedented in modern times. Besides the intensification of enforcement at the border and in the interior, the administration has severely reduced refugee admissions from outside the United States and restricted access to asylum at the U.S. border. This administration has approached lawful immigration with skepticism unmatched in generations, and the President himself has championed distinctions by nationality and religion. Though the immediate impact of these changes has been highly publicized, they have deeper significance. They reflect the basic U.S. approach to making immigration law and policy, and they amplify fundamental divisions in U.S. society. All of these changes in immigration law and policy are affecting the United States in ways that will last for many years, no matter how long this administration stays in power. This talk will explore these developments, starting with the most well-known, but then examining their more subtle aspects, many of which have counterparts elsewhere in the world.

Open Lectures Series


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