On Thursday, November 19, 2015 at 12 p.m. Eastern, EPI will commemorate the one-year anniversary of President Obama’s “deferred action” with an event presenting a new book on deportations. Obama’s executive order to postpone the deportation of about 5 million unauthorized immigrants has been blocked by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Dr. Tanya Boza, the author Deported: Policing Immigrants, Disposable Labor and Global Capitalism, will be joined by several experts, including Jennifer Rosenbaum, legal and policy director at the National Guestworker Alliance, Marc Rosenbaum, deputy director of the Migration Policy Institute’s U.S. Immigration Policy Program, and Shannon Lederer, director of immigration policy at the AFL-CIO. Daniel Costa, EPI’s director of immigration law and policy research, will moderate the event.
Of the 11 million unauthorized immigrants in the United States, 84 percent have resided in the country for over five years, while nearly two thirds have lived in the United States for a decade, and over a fifth for two decades; but all are subject to removal from the country at any time. Unauthorized immigrants also make up five percent of the U.S. labor market—but because of their legal status have few rights and and limited access to U.S. labor and employment law protections—and therefore suffer higher rates of wage theft and earn lower wages than U.S. born workers. For years, Congress has not been able to agree on a fair and humane solution.
In response, one year ago this week President Obama announced a series of actions on immigration under his executive authority that would have included postponing the deportation of approximately five million unauthorized immigrants and offered them an opportunity to work legally (also known as “deferred action”) if they have children who are U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents, or if they entered the United States as children themselves: the DAPA and the expanded DACA initiatives. However, the legality of these initiatives was seriously questioned by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the Obama administration plans to ask the Supreme Court to overturn an injunction blocking the initiatives. In the meantime, the broader policy question remains unresolved: Is it in the interests of the United States to leave five percent of the labor market vulnerable to employer exploitation and to separate immigrant families that have resided in the United States for years or decades?
What: Presentation of new book “Deported: Policing Immigrants, Disposable Labor and Global Capitalism” and panel discussion of its findings in the context of deferred action and immigration reform. Books will be available for purchase at the event.
Who: Tanya Maria Golash-Boza, author of Deported and associate professor of sociology, University of California, Merced
Jennifer Rosenbaum, legal and policy director, National Guestworker Alliance, and Robina Foundation visiting human rights fellow, Yale Law School
Marc Rosenblum, deputy director, U.S. Immigration Policy Program, Migration Policy Institute
Shannon Lederer, director of immigration, policy department, AFL-CIO
Opening remarks and moderated by Daniel Costa, director of immigration law and policy research, EPI
Where: Economic Policy Institute
1333 H Street NW, Suite 300 East Tower
Washington, DC 20005
When: 12 p.m. Eastern
Thursday, November 19, 2015
RSVP by emailing news@epi.org.