U.S. federal immigration enforcement has drawn significant national and international attention as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) expanded its operations nationwide to perform mass arrests and deportations. Funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was significantly increased, and escalating tensions between U.S. communities and federal enforcement have led to incidents of violence and death. Large-scale federal deployments such as the ongoing Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota have sparked widespread public debate and legal scrutiny, prompting protests across multiple cities and legal challenges from states like Maryland over the construction of new detention facilities. 

On Tuesday, March 10, at 9 am PT, the Pacific Council will host a conversation that breaks down current U.S. immigration policy, enforcement methods, and their implications for civil liberties and due process. Members will hear from Dr. Amada Armenta, Director of UCLA's Latino Policy & Politics Institute (LPPI), and Dr. Tom Wong, Director of the U.S. Immigration Policy Center at the University of California, San Diego.

Why it's important:

• According to an analysis by The Guardian, 77% of ICE I-213 forms, a document used to prove someone's eligibility for deportation, in 2025 did not include a criminal conviction. 
• As of January 26, only 39% of Americans polled by Reuters approve of how the President is handling immigration. 
• During FY2025, ICE’s budget increased to about $85 billion, up from $10 billion in FY2024. 
• The U.S. and Argentina are in discussions about the possibility of deportees from the U.S. being sent to the South American country. 

To register for this webinar, visit the Zoom Registration Page.

Guest Speaker

Dr. Amada Armenta is Faculty Director of the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute (LPPI) and Associate Professor of Urban Planning and Sociology at the Luskin School of Public Affairs. In her role at LPPI, she leads a nationally recognized policy center that conducts research, improves data infrastructure, and hosts convenings on issues that impact Latino communities, including public health, workforce, and entrepreneurship. By embedding equity into research, policy engagement, and leadership pipelines, LPPI’s work transforms systems to reflect and serve Latinos and other communities of color. Dr. Armenta’s personal scholarship examines the intersection of immigration enforcement and criminal justice and the impacts of immigration law on Latino communities. Her book Protect, Serve, and Deport: The Rise of Policing as Immigration Enforcement (University of California Press, 2017) received multiple awards for its analysis of local policing’s role in immigration control.

Guest Speaker

Dr. Tom K. Wong is an associate professor of political science and founding director of the U.S. Immigration Policy Center (USIPC) at the University of California, San Diego. He served as an advisor to the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (WHIAAPI) under the Obama administration, where he co-led the immigration portfolio and was appointed by Governor Gerry Brown to serve on the State of California 2020 Census Complete Count Committee (CCC). He is also the winner of the ACLU Presidential Prize, which is given to an academic who has made outstanding contributions to civil rights and civil liberties. He is also Co-Director of the Human Rights and Migration program. His research focuses on the politics of immigration, citizenship, and migrant "illegality." As these issues have far-reaching implications, his work also explores the links between immigration, race and ethnicity, and the politics of identity. His first book, Rights, Deportation, and Detention in the Age of Immigration Control, analyzes the immigration control policies of twenty-five Western immigrant-receiving democracies (Stanford University Press, 2015). In analyzing over 30,000 roll call votes on immigration-related legislation in Congress since 2005, his second book, The Politics of Immigration: Partisanship, Demographic Change, and American National Identity (Oxford University Press, 2017), represents the most comprehensive analysis to date on the contemporary politics of immigration in the United States. 

Wong's research has been used by policymakers both in the U.S. and in Mexico, as well as by organizations that serve immigrant communities. Wong’s research has been used in several federal lawsuits to defend DACA, end family separation at the southern border, and prohibit indefinite child detention, among others. Wong and his work have been covered by The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NPR, and major media outlets across the country in hundreds of articles.

He is also on the board of the California Immigrant Policy Center. Wong also consults on campaign elections and has run large-scale c3, c4, and independent expenditure campaigns, specializing in mobilizing low-propensity voters of color and immigrant communities. He is lead evaluator for the Four Freedoms Fund civic engagement program and lead evaluator for the RISE Together Fund civic engagement program.

 

To register for this webinar, visit the Zoom Registration Page.