ASU Immigration Conference

More from this show

The Role of States in Immigration Policy and Enforcement is the name of the conference taking place October 8th at ASU’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. ASU law professor Carissa Hessick talks about the conference that’s designed to explore the complex legal and policy issues raised by increasing state involvement in immigration.

Ted Simons:
Arizona's senate bill 1070 is prompting no shortage of debate about the role that states should play in setting immigration policy. A conference on immigration issues will be held next week at Arizona state University. Earlier today I talked to Carissa Byrne Hessick, an associate professor at the ASU's Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, about the upcoming conference. Thank you for joining us tonight on "Horizon."

Carissa Byrne Hessick:
Thank you for having me.

Ted Simons:
What is this conference specifically focusing on?

Carissa Byrne Hessick:
Specifically we wanted to have a conference that would talk about the role that states can, are, and should play in immigration policy and enforcement.

Ted Simons:
OK. Legal issues, obviously will be involved as well?

Carissa Byrne Hessick:
We'll be talking about legal issues, as everyone who has been following the SB 1070 case knows, that federal preemption of state immigration law has been a big issue. So that's definitely one of the topics we'll be talking about.

Ted Simons:
And I guess societal issues?

Carissa Byrne Hessick: Societal issues.

Ted Simons:
Political news.

Carissa Byrne Hessick:
Political issues.

Ted Simons:
And economic issues.

Carissa Byrne Hessick:
Exactly.

Ted Simons:
So how do you get that in a one-day conference?

Carissa Byrne Hessick:
It's a one-day conference, we're very lucky because we have immigration experts who specialize in different fields. Immigration experts from across the country joining us to talk about these legal issues, we have someone who's been doing a study on the economic impact of immigration, we have someone who's been doing a study on state law enforcement practices with respect to immigration, so all of these people across the country are doing really fascinating research on immigration, they've all agreed to come here and speak with us.

Ted Simons:
Is the research on immigration in and of itself, or is someone looking at what happens to a state like Arizona when it adopts a law, or tries to at least put into law a bill that really is hard, is tough on immigration?

Carissa Byrne Hessick:
We have a couple of people, our keynote speaker, a professor from Princeton University, is really interested in studying Arizona and why it is that Arizona seems to have become ground zero for the debate on immigration in the United States.

Ted Simons:
Is there a -- obviously we share the border, obviously it looks like California and Texas and those areas decided to -- those areas were focus order, everyone starts funneling toward us. Is it more than that, though?

Carissa Byrne Hessick:
I 30 there are a few other sort of unique situations and unique circumstances that gave rise to this issue in Arizona. One of them were political actors willing to enact the this sort of immigration law. Another was that they were working with some people out of state who were helping them to draft this law. And then I think it's also really the political climate within Arizona. And about how important immigration has ended up becoming in this election.

Ted Simons:
And with this particular state and the situation here, you've got other states now kind of moving along the same line, and that gets back to the main focus, which is, where do you go? Do you go fed, do you go state? A mix of the two?

Carissa Byrne Hessick:
Exactly. I think a lot of state actors are frustrated, especially border states. They perceive there to be a problem with current immigration policy and current federal immigration law. But as you know, Congress hasn't done much recently in the realm of immigration, there's a stalemate, a deadlock. So states are trying to do things on their own.

Ted Simons:
Has the heat died down enough on this issue for this kind of discourse? Right now the discourse is pretty hot and heavy, and a lot of yelling, a lot of shouting, a lot of marching, but we don't get this kind of thing yet. Are we ready for this kind of thing?

Carissa Byrne Hessick:
I hope we are. In fact, I think a conference like this could help bring down the heat and the intensity of the debate. What we're looking for is to bring nuance and bring some facts and ration at into this debate, a lot of people I've talked to in the wake of SB 1070 have been concerned they think they know what's going on, or they're not sure they know what's going on, and we're hoping an immigration conference like this can help to inform those people out there who realize how important of an issue immigration is, but maybe don't know exactly all of the facts and all of the important and difficult arguments that can be made about this issue.

Ted Simons:
And yet, you know, we tried every night on this show, and you're trying with this conference to get to kind of a -- an academic sort of an approach, an objective look at a very controversial issue. Can you do that with something that if someone doesn't agree with a policy, it's almost as if there's nothing you can say. No numbers you can show them. On either side, to convince them that the policy needs to be looked at.

Carissa Byrne Hessick:
I really hope that that isn't the case. One of my colleagues describes sort of intellectual endeavors like work can out at the gym. It's painful and it takes a lot of effort. And people like to try to avoid doing it. But once you do it, it's better for you and it becomes easier. So the more debates like this we have, and the more rationale nuance discourse we V. the more we would expect to see that spreading in the public.

Ted Simons:
You mentioned one professor, anyone else we should know?

Carissa Byrne Hessick:
We have a number of great people coming. Justice O'Connor will be giving the welcome address. We have Judith Resnick, a lot of really impressive people.

Ted Simons:
OK. Public can register to attend?

Carissa Byrne Hessick:
That's right on our web site, immigration.law.ASU.EDU.

Ted Simons:
And apparently attorneys, you want to make sure attorneys know credit can be applied?

Carissa Byrne Hessick:
They can get up to four credits.

Ted Simons:
Very good. Good luck on this, because it's such a contentious issue. And it would be nice to have folks sit down, just to act civil and try to figure out a solution. At least get close to a solution.

Carissa Byrne Hessick:
I agree. Thank you very much.

Carissa Byrne Hessick:ASU Law Professor;

Illustration of columns of a capitol building with text reading: Arizona PBS AZ Votes 2024
April 2

Arizona PBS to present candidate debates as part of ‘AZ Votes 2024’

A photo journalist walking a destroyed city
airs April 2

Frontline: 20 Days in Mariupol

A woman working on a project in an art studio
airs March 29

Violet Protest

The
aired March 25

Pulitzer on the Road: Small Town Shakedown

Subscribe to Arizona PBS Newsletters

STAY in touch
with azpbs.org!

Subscribe to Arizona PBS Newsletters: