- December 03, 2020
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- May 22, 2025
On December 3, 2020, the Aspen Institute hosted a virtual discussion on Migration, Flight, and US Immigration Policy under President Biden with T. Alexander Aleinikoff, University Professor and Director of the Zolberg Institute on Migration and Mobility at The New School (NYC); Eric P. Schwartz, President of Refugees International and former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration (2009-2011); and Roberto Suro, Professor of Journalism and Public Policy at the University of Southern California. Berit Ebert, Vice President of Programs of the American Academy in Berlin, moderated this discussion.
At the beginning of 2021, US President-elect Joe Biden will inherit an immigration system that has been dramatically transformed by the Trump administration over the past four years. The panelists observed that these transformations include a new series of restrictive asylum policies, the construction of a border wall to Mexico, sweeping green-card limitations, broader deportation priorities, a decimated refugee program, and pandemic-era border restrictions. The Biden-Harris team will have much to contend with in forging pragmatic policies that both protect the US border and honor legal migration to the United States.
In this panel discussion, practitioners and experts from the field discussed what post-Trump immigration policy might look like, and what challenges—political, bureaucratic, and cultural—the Biden administration is likely to face in the coming years.
This event is part of the virtual Road to Election Night & Beyond, which the Aspen Institute Germany organizes in cooperation with several Berlin-based transatlantic institutions and political foundations. More information on the event series can be found here: https://landing.berlin-election-night.de.
