President Joe Biden has signed an executive order to temporarily shut down asylum requests at the southern border as daily encounters exceed 2,500.
This move, aimed at addressing the migrant influx, has sparked criticism from both Republicans, who deem it insufficient, and immigrant advocates, who argue it betrays Biden’s campaign promises. The administration is bracing for legal challenges similar to those faced by the Trump administration’s efforts in 2018.
Faculty experts at the George Washington University are available to provide context, commentary and analysis on this matter. If you would like to speak to an expert, please contact GW Media Relations at gwmedia
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Law
Cori Alonso-Yoder is an Associate Professor of Fundamentals of Lawyering at the GW Law School. Alonso-Yoder is nationally recognized scholar on immigration legislation and the impacts of state, local and federal laws on immigrant communities. She specializes on the health policy of immigration.
Alberto Benítez is a Professor of Clinical Law; and Director of GW Law’s Immigration Clinic. Professor Benítez is an expert in Immigration Law. Benítez supervises students that handle a variety of immigration law matters including representing noncitizens, writing comments to proposed federal regulations, and disseminating information to the public.
Immigration Policy
Elizabeth Vaquera is the inaugural Director of the Cisneros Hispanic Leadership Institute and an Associate Professor of Sociology and Public Policy and Public Administration at the George Washington University. Vaquera's research focuses on vulnerable and diverse groups, particularly Latinos/as and immigrants. Her work has analyzed the character and importance of immigrant status, race, and ethnic identity in outcomes such as education, health, and emotional and social well-being. In addition to an extensive body of work published in leading peer-reviewed journals, Vaquera is the co-author of several books, the most recent of which, Education and Immigration, examines the educational experiences of immigrants and their children living in the U.S.
“We’ve seen in the last few months and the last few weeks that there’s a lot of threats towards asylum,” says Vaquera. “This has been in place for decades and decades now, so there’s new attempts to decrease who can come here, what are the grounds people can use to arrive to the United States under the asylum protections.”
Below Vaquera discusses narratives surrounding asylum and DACA:
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