Unsettled: Immigration in Turbulent Times

Zolberg Institute on Migration and Mobility
  • 5.0 (25)
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  • Updated Semiweekly

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, Miñana Family Center for Immigration Law and Policy; and Amanda Frost, David Lurton Massee, Jr., Professor of Law and Director of the Immigration, Migration and Human Rights Program, University of Virginia School of Law. 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. Unsettled is produced by Samantha Gattsek. The cover art was designed by Aam Creative. The music was composed by Achilles Kallergis.

Episodes

  1. Jun 25

    Episode 7: Coming to America, Then and Now

    This episode takes a comprehensive look at the first year and a half of the Trump administration’s immigration policies. How different or similar are the policies and actions we’re seeing today compared with earlier times in U.S. history? What do these scores of changes add up to?

  2. May 18

    Season 2, Episode 6: Supreme Court

    This episode looks at two cases that the Supreme Court heard in March and April of this year: Noem v. Al Otro Lado and Trump v. Barbara. They’re significant cases that address very different aspects of immigration and citizenship.

  3. Mar 20

    Season 2, Episode 5: Immigration Detention

    This episode looks at immigration detention in the second Trump administration. The administration has been greatly expanding detention facilities by buying warehouses to be converted into eight large-scale detention facilities, with the goal of having these facilities operational by the end of September of this year. The administration intends to use military procurement to speed up this transformation.

  4. Feb 24

    Season 2, Episode 4: Rights in the Era of ICE Raids

    This episode reflects on immigration enforcement in the United States from the perspective of civil liberties, assessing the broader implications of contemporary enforcement practices for constitutional rights and the rule of law.

  5. Jan 27

    Season 2, Episode 3: 'I’m an Immigration Lawyer. Trump Is Shattering My Clients’ Lives.'

    Elora Mukherjee, Jerome L. Greene Clinical Professor Law at Columbia Law School, joins Alex Aleinikoff and Hiroshi Motomura to discuss her December 2025 op-ed in the New York Times, “I’m an Immigration Lawyer. Trump Is Shattering My Clients’ Lives” and the broader context around immigration law in our current moment. Please note: this episode begins with a discussion of the events in Minneapolis, but was recorded prior to the Janaury 24, 2026 shooting of Alex Pretti, in Minneapolis, MN.

  6. Jan 13

    Season 2, Episode 2: H-1B Visas

    David J. Bier, Director of Immigration Studies and The Selz Foundation Chair in Immigration Policy at the Cato Institute, joins Hiroshi Motomura and Cristina Rodriguez to discuss the implications of 2025 Executive Order on H-1B visas, what might be motivating that Executive Order, and the ins and outs of economic, labor, and employment migration.

  7. 10/22/2025

    Season 2, Episode 1: The Trump Administration's War on Venezuelan Migrants

    Jon Blitzer, staff writer for The New Yorker, discusses his recent article in the magazine, “Enemies of the State: How the Trump Administration declared war on Venezuelan migrants in the U.S.” In telling the story of a Venezuelan couple living in Chicago, one of whom was sent to CECOT, the notorious prison in El Salvador, and one deported to Venezuela, Blitzer lays bare the unconscionable policies of the Administration. He also describes his reporting on Aurora, Colorado, the city visited by Trump during the 2024 campaign and where Trump announced his plans to invoke the Alien Enemies Act.

  8. 07/28/2025

    Episode 10: The Democrats and Immigration

    Immigration was a salient issue in the 2024 presidential election and that it hurt Democrats. Arrivals and entries had skyrocketed under Biden. The so-called Biden “reset” late in his administration was to deter asylum claims at the border, work with Mexico and other countries to prevent flows, open up alternative legal pathways, including large parole programs for designated nationalities. But the efforts to close the border came too late, and they left very few people persuaded. And Democrats again were lambasted as the open border party, and overall support for US immigration policies seemed to be shifting. However, the Trump administration has overreached. Even among Republicans, the change in sentiment is noteworthy. Can the Democrats can come up with a narrative and a set of policies that can appeal to a wide swath of the American public. But what should those policies be? And can the Democrats shed the label as the party of open borders? Our guest speaker is Frank Sharry, a longtime advocate and policy expert.

  9. 07/17/2025

    Episode 9: A Quiet Border and the End of Asylum?

    This episode looks at the US-Mexico border, exploring questions such as: are the policies of the Trump administration legal? Where have the record numbers of migrants gone? Have the crises that contributed to the surges of asylum seekers–surges that also occurred during Trump 1.0, and the Obama years– abated? Can current circumstances be sustained through enforcement alone? Our guest speakers are Lee Gelernt, Deputy Director of the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project, and Gretchen Kuhner, Director El Instituto para las Mujeres en la Migración, a Mexican NGO that seeks to protect the rights of migrant women and families.

  10. 06/20/2025

    Episode 8: What's happening in Los Angeles?

    This episode dives into the facts on the ground in Los Angeles, examining the protests that aim to counter the terror spread through the workplaces and neighborhoods of Los Angeles because of the ICE actions and augmented by a federalized National Guard and the deployment of US Marines. Our guest speakers are from UCLA School of Law’s Center for Immigration Law and Policy: Ahilan Arulanantham, professor from practice and faculty co-director and Talia Inlander, the Center’s deputy director.

  • 10 Episodes

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
25 Ratings

About

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, Miñana Family Center for Immigration Law and Policy; and Amanda Frost, David Lurton Massee, Jr., Professor of Law and Director of the Immigration, Migration and Human Rights Program, University of Virginia School of Law. 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. Unsettled is produced by Samantha Gattsek. The cover art was designed by Aam Creative. The music was composed by Achilles Kallergis.

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