Immigration Nation: Framing and Reality of Biden's Immigration Policy Leading up to the 2024 Presidential Election

Description: 

In recent days, the immigration situation in the United States has often been framed as a “crisis situation” that has been escalated by the Biden administration’s inaction on the issue. Furthermore, the media stunt by Republican governors of border states, such as Ron DeSantis of Florida and Greg Abbot in Texas, of bussing asylum seekers north to Sanctuary Cities and states, has put tremendous pressure on certain "blue states" and cities, which have found themselves under-resourced and overwhelmed by migrants. It has put additional political pressure on the Biden administration, as it had to weather intra-party criticism from both, Democratic governors and mayors for letting the “immigration crisis” spin out of control. Contrary to this narrative, the Biden administration has been all but inactive on immigration: Since entering office in 2021, Biden has implemented over 500 actions on immigration, surpassing even the Trump administration in activities on the issue. Furthermore, the Biden administration’s end of the pandemic era’s Title 42 of the United States Code (USC), which allowed the United States government to halt entries into the country in the name of public health, and its re-implementation of Title 8, has actually laid the basis for a reasonably regulated way to manage asylum claims and border crossings. This talk will explore the disparities between the Republican (and some Democratic) framing of the “border crisis” on the one hand, and the political realities on the other. 

Guest speaker:

Annika Marlen Hinze is an Associate Professor of Political Science and the Director of the Urban Studies Program at Fordham University. Her research and teaching focus on urban politics, immigration policy, democratic theory, and qualitative and mixed methods research. Hinze is also interested in housing, transportation, and sustainability policy in cities. Hinze has published articles in the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, PS: Political Science & Politics, and Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism. Her current research focuses on gender equality in academia, the lasting impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cities in policy framing and practice, sustainability policy and planning in American cities, urban neighborhood change, and democratic institutions. Dr. Hinze has done field research in Canada, Germany, Turkey, and the United States and is an Associated Researcher at the Center for Metropolitan Studies at TU Berlin. Dr. Hinze studied English, North American Studies, and Modern History at Humboldt University and Free University in Berlin, Germany, and holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Illinois, Chicago.

Moderator:

Daniel Stockemer is Konrad Adenauer Research Chair in Empirical Democracy Studies and Full Professor in the School of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa.