This is a podcast interview with Rev. Craig B. Mousin, founder and former Director of the Midwest Immigrant Rights Center and an Adjunct Faculty member at DePaul University’s College of Law and The Grace School of Applied Diplomacy.  As the United States begins to reform immigration law in the midst of a multitude of developments at the nation’s borders, the podcast encourages us to respond to our shared values of living under the rule of law.  When our debate focuses on naming individuals as illegals prior to adjudication, it leads to gridlock.  By focusing on why we have established a refugee law and the importance of fair and just procedures, we may instead build upon those shared values.  The podcast also explains how criminal and civil law addresses those who seek to cross the border without authorization.

For information on the Border Patrol budget, see “The Cost of Immigration Enforcement and Border Security,” provided by the American Immigration Council at:  https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/the-cost-of-immigration-enforcement-and-border-security  (January 21, 2021).

For information on ways to address refugees at the border without simply relying on detention, see the report by the National Immigrant Justice Center, “A Better Way: Community-Based Programming As An Alternative To Immigrant Incarceration” at https://immigrantjustice.org/research-items/report-better-way-community-based-programming-alternative-immigrant-incarceration  (April 22,2019).

For more information and sources on the impact of the Title 42 regulation closing much of our border allegedly on public health concerns, see “Health Inequity and Tent Court Injustice,” at:  https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3777549

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