Community Engagement

Im/migrant Lives Podcast

Dr. Aranda interviews guests

Season 2

Episode 2: Immigrants and the Right to Legal Representation

In contrast to the criminal justice system, immigrants who come before a judge in civil immigration court are not guaranteed the right to legal representation should they be unable to afford it, yet in some cases they face consequences as severe as those applied in criminal cases. In this episode, we discuss whether immigrants facing detention and deportation should have access to the right to counsel by evaluating some of the research on the consequences of lacking legal representation and potential policy solutions.


Episode 1: Florida’s SB 1718: One Year Later

Florida’s SB 1718, a law that criminalized many aspects of life as an immigrant, passed in the Florida legislature and was signed into law in 2023. One year later, how have immigrants responded to this law, and what are the effects and implications for the state of Florida? In this episode, we will discuss SB 1718’s effects on immigrants’ lives and in their communities.


Season 1

Episodes

Episode 5: Unpacking the relationship between immigration and crime

Opponents of immigration often link immigration to crime, and rhetoric in the media has casted immigrants as criminals, leading some public officials to propose greater immigration control as a mechanism to reduce crime. This episode examines the relationship between immigration and crime to debunk the many myths circulating in the media about immigrants to the U.S.


Episode 4: Security at the border and racial profiling

In recent decades security at the US Southern border has increased to stop the arrivals of immigrants and refugees. This episode examines how border security, specifically the presence of the border wall in Arizona communities and Customs and Border Patrol’s practice of screening residents at border checkpoints, affects the Latino/a/x population of young adults in the region. We will discuss racial profiling practices, how they impact human rights, and how they erode residents’—including US citizens’—sense of belonging to the nation. 


Episode 3: Revamping Asylum

The right to seek asylum is protected under US federal law and the right to seek safety from persecution is backed by international law. Despite this, as immigrants and asylum seekers cross into the United States along the US-Mexico border, Congressional Representatives are negotiating changes to the US asylum system to slow the flow of migrants into the US. In this episode, we discuss the impact of these proposals and how the US asylum system could be revamped to ensure that a humanitarian approach guides changes to the asylum system.


Episode 2: Impact of Detention and Electronic Monitoring on Immigrant Children’s Well-Being

In Episode 2, Center Director Dr. Elizabeth Aranda interviews Dr. Caitlin Patler, Associate Professor of Public Policy at UC Berkeley, and Dr. Mirian Martinez-Aranda, Assistant Professor of Sociology at UC Irvine, about the impact of adult immigrant detention and alternatives to detention on their children’s well-being.


Episode 1: Effects of SB 1718 on Florida's Im/migrant Communities

In Episode 1, Center Director Dr. Elizabeth Aranda interviews Nanci Palacios, Deputy Director of Faith in Florida, and Dr. Heide Castañeda, Professor of Anthropology, on the effects of SB 1718, the immigration law that passed in the Florida legislature in the Spring 2023 legislative session. This law criminalizes many aspects of immigrants’ lives in the name of curbing undocumented migration. In this episode, we discuss the law's effects on immigrants and their communities.