LOS ANGELES – Please attribute the following statements regarding the results of the recent elections to:

Hiroshi Motomura, the Susan Westerberg Prager Distinguished Professor of Law and Faculty Co-Director of the Miñana Family Center for Immigration Law and Policy at the UCLA School of Law:

“After one of the most significant elections in modern U.S. history, it’s high time for a new, affirmative vision of immigration law. It’s imperative to reform the system for letting people into the United States to join close family, to work, to study, or for humanitarian protection. It’s essential that the millions of people who have been part of communities throughout the country get lawful immigration status. And it’s crucial that the new Congress hold the Trump administration accountable for its abusive immigration enforcement practices and its blatant disregard for the rule of law. Congress is now in a position to define the immigration debate, no matter what the president does. Congress needs to seize this historical moment to make clear its vision for the future of immigration to this country, and indeed its vision for the future of the United States.”

Ahilan Arulanantham, Professor from Practice and Faculty Co-Director of the Miñana Family Center for Immigration Law and Policy at the UCLA School of Law:

“The results of the Nov. 3 elections have the potential to usher in significant changes across the United States for immigrant communities, including those who are part of the University of California (UC) as students, staff, and faculty.

‘The need for a better immigration system is urgent, and substantial improvements need not be delayed. Over the past two years, Americans have protested en masse as the current administration’s authoritarian enforcement tactics claimed the lives of U.S. citizens and immigrants alike. Those tactics have left parents separated from their children, unleashed masked gunmen into our cities, and rightly terrified immigrant students all across this state and beyond. 

‘We will continue to urge policymakers at all levels of government to enact immigration policies that provide humane and sensible solutions. In particular, state and local officials need not wait to create the immigrant-inclusive communities voters have demanded. All those who chose to do nothing for the last two years out of fear of offending the federal government must heed the call from across the country to take corrective action now.”

Talia Inlender, Deputy Director of the Miñana Family Center for Immigration Law and Policy at the UCLA School of Law:

“This election is a stunning rebuke of the Trump administration, opening up the potential to set a new course for immigration law and policy. While change may take longer to come at the federal level, the sweeping victories in statehouses can deal a swift blow to the administration's cruel immigration policies. Republican-led states—with Texas at the helm—have sought to reshape immigration law and policy, repeatedly suing to take down protective executive initiatives like Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (“DACA”) and the ‘CHNV’ humanitarian parole program, colluding with the Trump administration on in-state tuition lawsuits, and passing their own legislation deputizing state officers to enforce federal immigration law. But the Constitution is clear: the federal government cannot commandeer states to assist with immigration enforcement. Newly elected state leaders can end this cooperation, taking away one of the key tools the administration has used to carry out its immoral and lawless immigration agenda.”

About UCLA CILP:

Founded in 2020, the Miñana Family Center for Immigration Law and Policy at the UCLA School of Law expands the law school's role as a national leader in immigration law and policy, generating innovative ideas at the intersection of immigration scholarship and practice and serving as a hub for transforming those ideas into meaningful changes in immigration policy. 

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