Atlanta Global Studies Symposium Keynote Speaker

Dr. Elizabeth F. Cohen

Illegal: How America’s Lawless Immigration Regime Threatens Us All

Moderated by Dr. Anthony Lemieux

US immigration enforcement agencies routinely stalk the undocumented, terrorize legal immigrants and mixed-status families, and even trespass on the constitutional rights of citizens. While the Trump administration flaunted its brutality toward immigrants, the roots of its practices lie with early twentieth-century white nationalism and nativism. Elizabeth F. Cohen will narrate the country’s descent into anti-immigrant panic, tracing the origins of our obsession with illegality to the country’s first comprehensive immigration restriction law. That nativist legislation paved the way for today’s sprawling enforcement apparatus, whose budget and power now dwarf that of any other federal law enforcement agency. She will also speak about how past legislation can help us confront this crisis of corruption and abuse and what to expect from the new administration

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