Looking Back to Move Forward: Examining Past Legalization Programs

Sept. 20, 2013
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BORDERS

On September 4th, BORDERS Director Jay Nunamaker and Executive Director Elyse Golob attended an invitation-only roundtable discussion at Georgetown University’s Institute for the Study of International Migration (ISIM) in Washington D.C. on the implementation and impact of past immigration legalization programs in the US and abroad. The goal of the roundtable was to draw lessons from the subject matter experts’ experience in program outreach and administration; the role of state and local actors; outcomes for the immigrants and the economy; and evaluation metrics and methods. Past legalization programs the group discussed included examples such as The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA) and the Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relieve Act of 1997 (NACARA).

This was the first of a series of meetings funded by the MacArthur Foundation. Each meeting will focus on different aspects of past and proposed immigration legislation.      

A partial list of institutions represented at the roundtable include: Pew Research Center; Brookings Institution; Migration Policy Institute; U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services; Congressional Research Service; National Conference of State Legislatures; MacArthur Foundation; Center for Immigration Studies; Pew Charitable Trusts; University of North Carolina; and University of California at Davis.