Immigration Policy & Enforcement: A Debate on the Right

What explains the longstanding challenge of effective border enforcement?

 

Is it a problem of administration policy, a failure of Congress, or something else? Are there structural constraints that interfere with enforcement? Should states or even citizens have the ability to hold the administration to the policy choices of Congress? Does new interest in broader citizen or state standing threaten a more important concern for executive branch authority or uniformity in laws with 'national implications'? And how far does federal preemption extend—does it preclude any state sovereign authority to exclude?

 

This panel of experts agrees on the need for effective enforcement but disagrees on how questions of federalism and separation of powers affect our immigration policy. To some, federal preemption on immigration is consistent with federalism, and state policymaking might undermine federal control and democratic accountability. To some, the separation of powers calls for significant policy discretion in the executive branch. But to others, such arguments for concentrated authority within the federal government undervalue the states' own sovereign interests, and perhaps even citizens' interests in ensuring effective immigration policy.

 

Lunch will begin promptly at 12:30pm and the event will run until 2:00pm on Friday, June 21. Registration is free.

 

 

Moderator: Hon. Paul B. Matey, U.S. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit

Michael Buschbacher, Partner, Boyden Gray PLLC

John Ehrett, Chief Counsel, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley

Gene Hamilton, Executive Director, Executive Vice President, & General Counsel, America First Legal Foundation

Ryan Newman, General Counsel, Executive Office of the Governor, State of Florida