While anti-immigrant politicians in border states are seeking to score points by manufacturing a “migrant crisis” in destination cities and states, elected officials seeking to offer welcome are far from powerless. Responding to these challenges will require significant resources and ingenuity, but governors have tools at their disposal to rise to the occasion.

One of those tools is to allow new migrants to work. 

Recent uncertainties regarding the legal status of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program underscore the urgency for policymakers to reassess long-standing restrictions on government-sponsored healthcare subsidies for all immigrants, according to a new analysis by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine, Cornell Law School, and Harvard Medical School.

Angel Alfonso Escamilla García, our Migrations postdoctoral fellow, writes about his work on people migrating from the U.S. to Mexico. His research has shown that migrants pay close attention to any information that can give them clues about the dangers that lie between them and the U.S.

“Any executive action that a president might try to end birthright citizenship would be challenged in court and would be likely struck down as unconstitutional,” says Stephen Yale-Loehr, professor of immigration law.

Mary Jo Dudley, director of the CALS farmworker program, discusses concerns about training this workforce.

“These orders are going to be discriminatory in impact and on their face, meaning in their text, because in the order they explicitly singled out migrants and asylum seekers,” says Jaclyn Kelley-Widmer, professor of law.

A year after their graduation, hear from some of our past undergraduate Migrations scholars about their lives and work after Cornell, including some advice for the class of 2023!

Stephen Yale-Loehr, professor of law, says, “They were caught at the border, either at a port of entry or between a port of entry. So perhaps ‘caught attempting to cross the border’ would be more accurate.”

“I would co-sign Governor Hochul’s letter to the Federal Immigration Agency urging them to decide these work permit applications, and I would also urge New York State to appropriate more money to help counties on immigration generally,” says Stephen Yale-Loehr, professor of law.

Andrew Farnsworth, senior research associate in the Lab of Ornithology, says, “The light actually poses a lot of problems for birds migrating at night, so turning them off or eliminating them and reducing intensity, shielding them down is very helpful.”