Costs of Our Immigration System: Who Does the Burden Fall On?

On October 25, 2019, the Gray Center hosted “The Administration of Immigration.” For this conference, the Gray Center invited scholars to write papers exploring ways to improve our nation’s immigration system, and discuss them alongside other experts in panel sessions addressing such topics as whether immigration law is special, the costs and benefits of immigration, judicial review of the immigration system, and the moral underpinnings of immigration law. The event also featured keynote remarks from James McHenry, Director of the Executive Office of Immigration Review at the United States Department of Justice.

The third panel looked at costs of the U.S. immigration system. The discussion centered around two new working papers: First, “Silence and the Second Wall” by panelists Ming Hsu Chen of the University of Colorado Boulder’s Colorado Law School and Zachary R. New of Joseph & Hall P.C. The second paper, “A Seat at the Table for Citizens: Why the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Applies to Immigration and How Best to Implement this Long Overdue Reform” was authored by Julie Axelrod of the Center for Immigration Studies. The Gray Center’s Executive Director, Adam White, joined the panel to comment on the papers, and it was moderated by the Gray Center’s then-Deputy Director, Andrew Kloster. The papers and video are available at https://administrativestate.gmu.edu/events/the-administration-of-immigration/.

Featuring Julie Axelrod, Ming Hsu Chen, Andrew Kloster, Zachary New, and Adam White.