Immigration conference featured in ASU 'State Press'

The ASU State Press reported on a national conference, “The Role of the States in Immigration Policy and Enforcement,” which hosted prominent scholars in the field and was held on Oct. 8, in Armstrong Hall.

In the article, “Immigration conference attracts diverse experts,” reporter Samantha Valtierra Bush wrote about the conference’s specific intent. “This conference was designed to have a more dispassionate and objective analysis of the many issues associated with this topic,” said Professor and Dean Emeritus Alan Matheson, who opened the conference.

Professor Douglas Massey of Princeton University, a noted sociologist and demographer, said Arizona has become the center of the immigration debate, not only due to SB 1070, but because of added security and defense at major immigration corridors in San Diego and El Paso, which has diverted migration through Arizona.

Arizona’s tough new immigration bill is actually counterproductive, however, Massey said.

“The U.S. has evolved increasingly repressive and hard-lined policy towards immigrants, especially those from Mexico,” he said. “Rather than fixing the situation, it’s actually made it worse on almost every dimension.”