US officials are struggling to respond to the number of displaced people arriving at the southern U.S. border. The challenges at the border are exacerbating perceptions inside the United States of immigrants and immigration as being a threat, which is fueling resentment, animosity, and polarization. According to the Anti-Defamation League, this perception “has galvanized the anti-immigrant movement and made life substantially more difficult for all immigrants and the communities that welcome them”. 

This session will explore the complex issue of immigration, starting with what is happening at the border and why, how the issue is being weaponized, and turned into a wedge issue that is fueling divisions in the country, and what immigrant rights groups are doing to change the narrative and address these divisions while ensuring that immigrant communities in the United States can live in safety and peace.

Speakers:

• Saurav Upadhyay (Moderator), Research Manager - Learning & Evaluation, Alliance for Peacebuilding

• Josh Leach, Public Policy and Communications Strategist for The Unitarian Universalist Service Committee 

• Diego Aranda-Teixeira, Supervising Attorney, Litigation at Al Otro Lado Tijuana

• Oscar Hernandez Ortiz, Dreamer and Activist