Amada Armenta, associate professor of urban planning at UCLA Luskin, commented in a Newsweek story on immigration bills introduced by House Republicans. The bills follow a number of immigration-related executive orders issued by President Trump, and focus on securing the southwest border and addressing immigrants who may be violent criminals. The legislation does not seek overall reform to a complex system that has not seen major changes in at least 30 years, according to the story. “For over three decades, Congress has led with enforcement-only approaches to immigration policy rather than common sense legislation,” said Armenta, faculty director at the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute. She added that reform would “require acknowledging that immigrants, including millions who are here without a legal immigration status, make tremendous and unacknowledged contributions to society and are crucial to numerous industries in the U.S. economy.” Given the political messaging, she said, “I’m not optimistic.”
Associate Professor of Urban Planning
Amada Armenta’s research examines the connections between the immigration enforcement system and the criminal justice system, and the implications of...
