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RL

Robert Law

Robert Law is the Director of Regulatory Affairs and Policy for the Center for Immigration Studies. He is a recognized expert on the legal immigration system, with particular understanding of the impact that employment-based immigrant and nonimmigrant policies affect the wages and opportunities for American workers.

Series

Parsing Immigration Policy8 episodes

Recent Episodes

Parsing Immigration Policy
Parsing Immigration Policy

Panel: A New Database of Vetting Failures

Summary The Center for Immigration Studies unveiled a new database of national security vetting failures at a recent panel discussion. This database is the first known collection of preventable federal government vetting failures that enabled the entry of foreign nationals who threatened and harmed American national interests and public safety. The information collected in the database offers an opportunity to study and understand the failures, with an eye toward preventing such failures in the future. The number of visa security failures already in the database illustrates the link between national security and immigration policy. To discuss this, the March 8 panel was comprised of individuals with experience in three institutions involved in vetting those coming to this country: intelligence, DHS, and the State Department. Mark Krikorian, the Center’s executive director and host of Parsing Immigration Policy, moderates this rebroadcast of the Center's panel. Host Mark Krikorian is the Executive Director of the Center for Immigration Studies.
Host:
Mark Krikorian
Organization
Center for Immigration Studies

May 2022

Parsing Immigration Policy
Parsing Immigration Policy

DHS Secretary on the Spot: Has Mayorkas Failed to Secure the Border and Enforce U.S. Laws?

View Podcast Archive Summary Amid record-breaking illegal migrant apprehensions at the Southwest border, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas faced two days of questioning last week at the House of Representatives. (He testified before the Senate this week.) His first day on Capitol Hill was focused on the FY2023 DHS budget, while his second appearance, the most contentious, was in front of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, which is charged with the oversight of DHS. Despite a crisis at the border, this was the first opportunity members of the House Judiciary Committee had to question Mayorkas. His testimony revealed much about the Biden administration’s anti-enforcement policy agenda. This administration is unwilling to deport an illegal immigrant even after the individual has been ordered removed by an immigration judge and been given numerous opportunities to appeal.
Host:
Mark Krikorian
Organization
Center for Immigration Studies

April 2022

Parsing Immigration Policy
Parsing Immigration Policy

The Need for a More Merit-Based H-1B Selection Process

Summary Every spring, the H-1B lottery for “temporary” white-collar workers takes place. The H-1B visa program is often referred to as a program exclusively for the “best and brightest”, but the overwhelming majority of the 85,000 visas go to alien workers at the two lowest prevailing wage levels. Why would the best and brightest work at a steeply discounted rate? The Trump administration attempted to make the program more merit-based through rulemaking. Candidate Joe Biden endorsed the rule in his platform, calling for a more merit-based immigration system. Yet the Biden administration killed the change despite it being a final rule, having gone through the notice and comment period, and having already been published and scheduled to take effect.
Host:
Mark Krikorian
Organization
Center for Immigration Studies

December 2021

Parsing Immigration Policy
Parsing Immigration Policy

Immigration Roundup for 2021

View Podcast Archive Summary Center for Immigration Studies’ analysts come together for this year’s final episode of Parsing Immigration Policy to discuss the top immigration stories of 2021 and to predict the biggest immigration stories of 2022. Mark Krikorian, the Center’s executive director and host of the podcast, leads the conversation focusing on three key immigration issues: the border, interior enforcement, and regulatory rule-making. Andrew R. Arthur, the Center’s fellow in law and policy, discusses the surge in illegal immigration at the southern border. Apprehensions at the southwest border have been the highest in history this fiscal year, and the current surge shows no sign of slowing. Those apprehended are also no longer predominantly single adult males from Mexico; this fiscal year’s apprehension number of unaccompanied minor children reached the highest number in history, and the majority of migrants entering were not citizens of Mexico. Arthur argues that the Biden administration is attempting to effectively legalize illegal immigration.
Host:
Mark Krikorian
Organization
Center for Immigration Studies

September 2021

Parsing Immigration Policy
Parsing Immigration Policy

The Public Charge Doctrine: From Colonial Times to Today

Summary The "public charge" doctrine – meaning that a person likely to have to be supported by taxpayers (a public charge) should not be permitted to immigrate – is one of the oldest elements of American immigration policy. Colonial Massachusetts enacted the earliest public charge law in 1645, while the first immigration law at the federal level, in 1882, likewise excluded immigrants who were likely to become a burden on taxpayers. But then as now, the main question is how to define public charge. In this week’s episode of Parsing Immigration Policy, Robert Law, the Center’s director of regulatory law and policy, walks listeners through the recent developments in this area, starting with 1996 legislation that sought to restrict immigrant access to welfare. But Congress left it to the executive to determine the specifics, and so the Clinton administration defined being a public charge as being primarily dependent on the government through cash welfare, but not non-cash welfare.
Host:
Mark Krikorian
Organization
Center for Immigration Studies

July 2021

Parsing Immigration Policy
Parsing Immigration Policy

Roundtable on the Week’s Top Immigration News

Summary Immigration has dominated headlines over the past week, and this week’s episode of Parsing Immigration Policy brings together Center for Immigration Studies experts to analyze these issues. The roundtable discussion covers the recent federal court ruling on DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), the newly released border apprehension numbers for June, and the possibility of Senate passage of an amnesty via a budget "reconciliation" rule. Robert Law, the Center’s director of regulatory affairs and policy, weighs-in on the federal court ruling on DACA, which created President Obama’s executive amnesty program that awarded work permits and Social Security numbers to illegal aliens. Although the judge found the program to be an “illegally implemented program,” he ruled that DACA recipients, along with their employers, states, and loved ones, have come to rely on the DACA program, and his decision does not revoke work permits from the current DACA population. What are the implications of this decision? Will it be appealed?
Host:
Mark Krikorian
Organization
Center for Immigration Studies

May 2021

Parsing Immigration Policy
Parsing Immigration Policy

Temporary Protected Status: Amnesty-Lite

Summary The Biden administration recently granted Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to all Haitian illegal and legal aliens in the United States. TPS prevents the deportation of illegal aliens, but more importantly, it rewards them with work permits, drivers’ licenses, Social Security numbers, and the ability to travel abroad and return. Under the law, countries should only be designated for TPS due to (1) ongoing armed conflict; (2) an environmental disaster; or (3) extraordinary and temporary conditions, and it only applies if these conditions prevent the safe return of nationals. Robert Law, the Center’s Director of Regulatory Affairs and Policy, discusses the abuse of this statutory authority that has grown the TPS population to well over half a million illegal alien beneficiaries from 12 countries, whose "temporary" status is routinely renewed, sometimes for decades. Law also offers several recommendations on how, by regulation or by statute, limits can be placed on executive authority to provide amnesty-lite to aliens.
Host:
Mark Krikorian
Organization
Center for Immigration Studies

April 2021

Parsing Immigration Policy
Parsing Immigration Policy

President Biden’s First 100 Days

Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, kicks off a new podcast with a conversation about the immigration policy changes enacted by President Biden during his first 100 days in office. Krikorian and his guest, a former Chief of the Office of Policy and Strategy at USCIS, discuss the southern border, interior enforcement, welfare, and the travel ban. What a difference 100 days make! Related Article: President Biden’s First 100 Days: Swift Action to Change Immigration Policy Want to know more about immigration? Sign up to receive the Center’s reports and press releases.
Host:
Mark Krikorian
Organization
Center for Immigration Studies