Gunisha Kaur, assistant professor at Weill Cornell Medicine Anesthesiology and co-medical director of the Weill Cornell Center for Human Rights, co-writes this opinion piece about protests by Indian farmers.

Jaclyn Kelly Widmer, associate clinical professor of law, discusses the opportunities that reopening DACA presents.

“DACA recipients cannot feel safe yet, for a variety of reasons,” said Stephen Yale-Loehr, a professor of immigration law at Cornell Law School. “The only true solution for DACA recipients is legislation offering them a path to legalization. Given the polarization in Congress, that seems difficult to achieve.”

Emily McGrath ’22 and Dea Fackovic Volcanjk ’23 spent part of their summer giving Cornell migrations researchers a leg up this fall semester. The undergraduates evaluated media and scholarly conversations that have helped shape the trajectory of the climate migration project, Megacity Migration: Social-ecological Impacts of Relocating Indonesia’s Capital City to a Global Biocultural Hotspot.

Amanda Rodewald, Migrations researcher, writes: "Birds are a shared resource among nations. Where governments have acted, they have successfully protected migratory birds and the habitat they depend on. In my view, the Trump administration's shift would abdicate U.S. leadership on migratory bird conservation and undermine public good for private profit."

Researchers at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology found evidence that suggests many species of birds follow green vegetation when they migrate. If birds use the vegetation to guide migration, climate change that impacts plants could also affect birds’ migratory patterns.

“If people believe the U.S. government is becoming more liberal on immigration, we may see a new wave of people… try to enter the U.S.,” says Stephen Yale-Loehr, professor of immigration law. “But if the new administration continues the hard-line approach of the Trump administration, Biden will be called ‘deporter in chief,’ just as former President Obama was.”

"It will take time to rebuild immigrants’ trust in America. But President-elect Joe Biden can and must."

In September, the White House proposed limiting international student visas to four year-periods and setting up precise new procedures for extending their stay. Biden could revoke these regulations. However, if they are finalized before Trump leaves office, a new administration would have to go through the lengthy regulatory process again, said Stephen Yale-Loehr, a professor of immigration law practice at Cornell University.

“This is the first time it’s been carefully documented that the economic institutions of the tech economy are open access,” said Victor Nee, the Frank and Rosa Rhodes Professor in the Department of Sociology in the College of Arts and Sciences, and co-author of “Immigration, Opportunity and Assimilation in a Technology Economy,” published Sept. 28 in Theory and Society.

“The barriers of entry are high with respect to human capital and social capital,” Nee said, “but once you’re in it, it is an environment that is open and inclusive.”