Center for Immigration Law and Policy Publications
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Moving Beyond Externalization in the U.S.-Mexico Relationship (February 2026)
- This policy paper draws on ideas that emerged at a binational convening hosted in August 2024 by the Seminar Migration, Inequality, and Public Policies (MIGDEP) of El Colegio de México (COLMEX) and the Center for Immigration Law and Policy (CILP) at the UCLA School of Law in Mexico City. The goal of the convening was to stimulate discussion on migration law and policy unconstrained by some of the traditional silos in which these conversations often occur. These silos can reflect boundaries of profession (academic vs. practitioner), discipline (law vs. social sciences), and geography (United States vs. Mexico). This paper is the first in a series that aims to build on the ideas from these discussions and propose ways to reimagine the U.S.-Mexico relationship with respect to migration.
- Versión en español disponible: Más allá de la externalización en la relación Estados Unidos-México
Protecting Sanctuary: Tools for Upholding the California Values Act (SB 54) (July 2025)
- This report released by the Immigrants' Rights Policy Clinic, part of the Center for Immigration Law and Policy (CILP) at the UCLA School of Law, shares tools for upholding California's sanctuary law in the face of mounting federal immigration across the state. Enacted in 2017, the California Values Act (SB 54) restricts the use of local and state law enforcement resources for cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. In the face of resistance to SB 54 from local jurisdictions and threats from the federal government, the need to uphold and enforce the law has never been more urgent. This resource offers ways that individuals, organizations, and the California Attorney General can uphold SB54’s promise to protect the rights of California’s immigrant communities and enhance public safety for all Californians.
- This report by the Immigrants' Rights Policy Clinic, part of the Center for Immigration Law and Policy (CILP) at the UCLA School of Law, and Equal Rights Beyond Borders, a European human rights organization, takes a rare transnational look at the detention of asylum seekers, finding striking similarities in the United States (U.S.) and European Union (EU) detention systems.
Cruel Indifference: Family Separation at the U.S.-Mexico Border Before and After Zero Tolerance (June 2024)
- This report from the Immigrants' Rights Policy Clinic, part of the Center for Immigration Law and Policy (CILP) at the UCLA School of Law, sheds light on how U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) continues to separate families at the U.S.-Mexico border. Told through timelines, policies, and personal stories, the report, entitled Cruel Indifference: Family Separation at the U.S.-Mexico Border Before and After Zero Tolerance, addresses the common misconceptions that family separation started under the Trump administration and ended under President Biden.
No Fair Day: The Biden Administration's Treatment of Children in Immigration Court (December 2023)
- This damning report finds that the Biden administration failed children in immigration court under its watch. Despite taking important steps in its early days, the report details how the administration's policies led to grave injustices for children facing immigration court proceedings in the United States, and resulted in tens of thousands of children ordered deported, most without legal representation or a fair day in court.
Migration, Race and Criminalization: Federal Criminal Entry & Reentry Laws in the United States (September 2023)
- In June 2023, we submitted a report to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) alongside the Promise Institute for Human Rights at UCLA School of Law and several regional partners. The report details personal testimony and legal analyses of structural racism in migration throughout the Americas. The report follows our groundbreaking hearing before the IACHR in March 2023, where we were joined by more than a dozen partner organizations working across the Americas to present at a thematic hearing regarding human mobility, structural racism, and the need for an anti-racist approach.
- This report reveals gross miscarriages of justice in the expedited immigration court docket established by the Biden administration for families seeking asylum, including the deportation of several hundred children who never had their day in court.
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Articles
"Temporary Protection in the Shadow of the Refugee Convention: A View from the United States" by Talia Inlender (Central and Eastern European Migration Review, 2025)
"State Employment Authorization" by Ahilan T. Arulanantham and Astghik Hairapetian (Georgetown Immigration Journal, 2024)
"Reversing Racist Precedent" by Ahilan T. Arulanantham (The Georgetown Law Journal, 2024)
"Looking Past Manufactured Crisis Narratives: Grounded Solutions for the Border and Beyond" by Monika Y. Langarica (San Diego Law Review, 2024)
Books
Borders and Belonging: Toward a Fair Immigration Policy by Hiroshi Motomura (Oxford University Press, 2025)
Immigration Outside the Law by Hiroshi Motomura (Oxford University Press, 2017)
Immigration and Citizenship: Process and Policy by T. Alexander Aleinikoff, David A. Martin, Hiroshi Motomura, Maryellen Fullerton, Juliet P. Stumpf, and Pratheepan Gulasekaram (West Academic, 2014)
Forced Migration Law and Policy by David A. Martin, T. Alexander Aleinikoff, Hiroshi Motomura, and Maryellen Fullerton (West Academic, 2013)
Americans in Waiting: The Lost Story of Immigration and Citizenship in the United States by Hiroshi Motomura (Oxford University Press, 2006)
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"Congress Should Stop DHS’s Lawless Misuse of Mandatory Immigration Detention" by Amit Jain, Mary Holper, and Ahilan Arulanantham (Just Security, February 11, 2026)
"ICE Is Not the Only Problem. Border Patrol Has Acted With Impunity for Decades" by Monika Y. Langarica (Truthout, January 31, 2026)
"The Future of Humanitarian Protection in the United States" by Hiroshi Motomura (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, September 25, 2025)
"What Does Immigration Law Do?" by Hiroshi Motomura (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, May 7, 2025)
"Deportation to CECOT: The Constitutional Prohibition on Punishment Without Charge or Trial" by Ahilan Arulanantham (Just Security, April 23, 2025)
"Explainer on First Amendment and Due Process Issues in Deportation of Pro-Palestinian Student Activist(s)" by Ahilan Arulanantham and Adam Cox (Just Security, March 12, 2025)
"What Just Happened: Sanctuary Policies and the DOJ Memo’s Empty Threat of Criminal Liability" by Ahilan Arulanantham (Just Security, January 23, 2025)
"The Supreme Court Is Separating American Families With Phony Originalism" by Ahilan Arulanantham (Slate, June 26, 2024)
"Trump’s Immigration Agenda: A Closer Look" by Ahilan Arulanantham (Just Security, June 26, 2024)
"The immigration system can bend toward justice. One Orange County man's case shows how" by Talia Inlender (Los Angeles Times, April 21, 2024)
"Solutions That Work? Analyzing State Employment Authorization for Noncitizens in the US" by Ahilan Arulanantham (Just Security, November 30, 2023)
"A New Border Wall Draws from an Old American Playbook" by Talia Inlender (Zocalo Public Square, February 6, 2023)
"The Supreme Court Should Stop Individual States From Dictating National Immigration Policy" by Ahilan Arulanantham and Monika Y. Langarica (Just Security, April 25, 2022)
"The Government’s Mistreatment of Americans Who Practice Islam Has Never Stopped" by Ahilan Arulanantham (The San Diego Union-Tribune, September 9, 2021)
"To Reverse Trump’s Policies, Biden Should Acknowledge Trump’s Bigotry" by Ahilan Arulanantham and Matthew Segal (Newsweek, January 15, 2021)
"Immigration Maximalism at the Supreme Court" by Ahilan Arulanantham and Adam Cox (Just Security, August 11, 2020)
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Mapping Deportations Website
- Mapping Deportations invites you to see the history of U.S. immigration enforcement not as a series of disconnected events, but as a pattern. For more than two centuries, U.S. immigration enforcement has favored Europeans and their descendants while targeting non-white migrants for exclusion, removal, and punishment. Although U.S. immigration law and policy have shifted over time, the nation’s immigration enforcement regime has consistently produced this result. This website is a joint project between the Center for Immigration Law and Policy and Million Dollar Hoods, with the support of the National Immigration Project.
Talking Immigration in Cars with Coffee Video Series
- You’ve heard of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee…. but immigration nerds in cars getting coffee? CILP's series, Talking Immigration in Cars with Coffee, is hosted by Ahilan Arulanantham and features guests from the immigrants’ rights space. As we’ve carpooled with colleagues to UCLA Law over the past couple of years, we realized we were doing this naturally. So now we are inviting YOU to join us as we all get to eavesdrop on these insightful conversations between advocates, community members, scholars, and leaders in the immigrants’ rights space.
Unsettled: Immigration in Turbulent Times Podcast
- Unsettled: Immigration in Turbulent Times examines Trump administration policies and actions affecting immigration and migrants and their communities. It adopts a broad perspective, seeing immigration policies in the context of constitutional law and principles, US history and our national narrative. The podcast is hosted by Alex Aleinikoff, Senior Fellow at the Zolberg Institute on Migration and Mobility, The New School; Hiroshi Motomura, Susan Westerberg Prager Distinguished Professor of Law at UCLA and Faculty Co-Director, Center for Immigration Law and Policy; and Cristina Rodriguez, Leighton Homer Surbeck Professor of Law at Yale Law School. Unsettled is produced with support from the Oscar M. Reubhausen Fund at Yale Law School, the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at the UCLA School of Law, and the Zolberg Institute for Migration and Mobility at The New School.
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Careers in Immigration Law and Immigrants' Rights
- The Careers in Immigration Law and Immigrants’ Rights guide was created to highlight the breadth of opportunities that exist for immigration lawyers and to provide resources and advice to assist students and graduates with job applications and career development.
