Massachusetts Daily Collegian

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A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

Massachusetts Daily Collegian

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

Massachusetts Daily Collegian

Panel of specialists discuss role of U.S. immigration policy in the 2020 presidential race

“There is a high number of refugees that need to be resettled, and our policies are not reflecting that.”
Anish+Roy
Anish G. Roy
Anish Roy

As a part of its Social Science Matters series, the University of Massachusetts hosted a panel discussion on Tuesday regarding the role of immigration policy both in the 2020 presidential race and the United States over the last few decades.

Throughout the talk, the three academic speakers were critical of U.S immigration policy enacted under the current administration. As Abigail Williamson, one of the speakers, said, “there is a high number of refugees that need to be resettled, and our policies are not reflecting that.”

The panel was composed of three professionals whose specializations deal with immigration within the U.S.: Debbie Schildkraut, Chair of the Department of Political Science at Tufts University; Williamson, Associate Professor of Political Science and Public Policy and Law at Trinity College; and David Hernandez, Associate Professor of Latina/o Studies at Mount Holyoke College.

While the public opinion is split on immigration policy, “this notion of ‘we are a nation of immigrants’ actually gets a lot of support,” said Schildkraut. Hernandez corroborated that, but also reminded the audience that “immigration history is filled with racist propaganda against migrants.” The specific target of the racist attacks has changed over the decades, having focused on the Chinese and Jewish before reaching Muslims and Latinx today, he said.

“It is one of those issues that is simultaneously simple but also very complex,” Schildkraut said. She hopes that students keep this in mind, as elected Democrats and Republicans tend to oversimplify the reality of the American public’s beliefs.

“[Immigration] is a subject that is very much a part of the 2020 presidential debates, yet it is a topic where there is so much misinformation,” Williamson said.

“The issue is totally polarized” in the U.S., Hernandez added. He believes that while President Donald Trump remains unafraid to speak his mind, other candidates “avoid the issue the best they can until they get pressed.”

A lack of transparency from candidates may pose an obstacle for individuals trying to inform themselves. Although she doesn’t currently have a favorite choice for president, Lillian Alvino, a senior public health and political science double major, said “they need to explain more about what they want” in order for her to make a decision and that immigration policy “will play a big part in it.”

Marco Maldonado, a sophomore legal studies and political science double major, feels similarly. His decision will “100 percent” be affected by a candidate’s immigration policies, and he said that when engaging in debates regarding the subject, “they should dedicate more time, because it is such an important policy.”

While the talk tackled a variety of angles related to immigration, Schildkraut hopes students walked away knowing that their efforts could make a difference.

“It may feel in the moment like it doesn’t do anything,” Schildkraut said, “but we know in the long run that activism and engagement really can matter.”

 Sara Abdelouahed can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @Sabdelouahed.

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    joeydNov 20, 2019 at 5:36 am

    Immigration needs to be reduced, the fact is until 2008 , democrats and republicans generally agreed on immigration , they differed in how to approach it. But both parties agreed on a border wall, they agreed that you need to become a u.s citizen and assimilate and both parties were against illegal immigration.

    Now immigration is out of control and there is a desire for open borders, there is a thought that ‘anyone’ can be an immigrant and that there is no such thing as an illegal immigrant or only an ‘undocumented’ immigrant, as if that immigrant just ‘forgot’ their documents and really an enormous amount of resources wasted on this issue.

    The united states may technically be a ‘nation of immigrants’ so is every nation in the world, including the nations where immigrants came from, all of human history has , people have migrated. The fact is also over 85 percent of the population is domestic, american born. The idea of a ‘nation of immigrants’ is just a farce used to sell extreme policies. Similarly the idea of ‘racism’ is insane because you cant have racism against groups you openly invited to come in, if the united states wanted we could totally ban muslims or jews or whatever other group that the country is supposedly ‘racist’ against. The argument isn’t there is evidence its happening now,.. but lol decades ago it supposedly happened against totally different ethnic groups, its a very moronic argument in my opinion. Also this talking point of ‘racism’ has very little credibility at this point, because just about everything in the world has been declared as ‘racist’.

    I think your going to see a shift in the immigration policy to it being very tightly controlled and restricted because that is what the american people want. The only thing standing in the way is basically the court system, who have consistently undermined democracy through their injunctions.

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