This week, we’re re-releasing an episode from May 2024 featuring an interview with Alexander Kustov on his forthcoming book, In Our Interest: How to Make Immigration Popular. The book was recently published on April 29, 2025, making now an opportune time to revisit the conversation.

In the episode, Senior Advisor Theresa Cardinal Brown and Associate Director Jack Malde speak with Kustov, Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, about his research on how public opinion toward immigration is formed—and whether it can be shifted. Kustov argues that the most effective way to build durable support for immigration is to adopt demonstrably beneficial policies that make voters confident their government is managing immigration in their interest.

In Our Interest: How Democracies Can Make Immigration Popular - https://www.amazon.com/Our-Interest-Democracies-Immigration-Popular/dp/0231218117/

In this week’s episode of This Week in Immigration, BPC Senior Advisor Theresa Cardinal Brown discusses the implications of a recent executive order that has sought to limit birthright citizenship in the United States. Immigration attorney and MacArthur Fellow Margaret Stock explains what current law says about who qualifies for U.S. citizenship, drawing on her years of experience helping U.S. citizens document the citizenship of children born abroad. She also discusses the challenges U.S. parents could face under the order and the potential financial and legal burdens it would create. Then, Jacob Hamburger, Visiting Assistant Professor of Law at Cornell, joins to talk about how the policy could strain state and local governments that issue birth certificates and the broader federalism issues it raises. 

Protesting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship – White House Executive Order:  

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/protecting-the-meaning-and-value-of-american-citizenship/ 

The Consequences of Ending Birthright Citizenship - Jacob Hamburger: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5106022 

Four questions in the Supreme Court arguments in birthright citizenship cases – CNN:  

https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/30/politics/birthright-citizenship-supreme-court-vladeck-analysis 

In this week's episode of This Week in Immigration, BPC Senior Advisor Theresa Cardinal Brown discusses the Trump administration's actions to rescind foreign students' status in the U.S. with two experts. Steve Springer from NAFSA explains the roles of educational institutions, students, and the government in maintaining student status and the implications of recent changes on international education in the U.S. Then, immigration attorney Charles (Chuck) Kuck talks about his lawsuit against the administration for rescinding the status of 17 students and the legal arguments involved. 

NAFSA: https://www.nafsa.org/ 

Department of Homeland Security - Study in the States: https://studyinthestates.dhs.gov/ 

IIE Open Doors - International Students: https://opendoorsdata.org/data/international-students/ 

(00:10) Intro

(01:00) Steve Springer

(31:20) Charles Kuck

(59:06) Outro

In this week’s episode, BPC Senior Advisor Theresa Cardinal Brown interviews Associate Director Jack Malde about BPC’s new report Bridging the Gap: Meeting Workforce Needs Over the Next Decade. The report uses a data-driven approach to identify the occupations and industries at the highest risk of workforce shortages over the next decade, with healthcare leading the list. Then, Jack interviews Cassandra Zimmer-Wong, Immigration Policy Analyst at the Niskanen Center, about her report investigating how immigration reform can address healthcare workforce shortages. 

Bridging the Gap: Meeting Workforce Needs Over the Next Decade - The Bipartisan Policy Center: https://bipartisanpolicy.org/report/bridging-the-gap-meeting-workforce-needs-over-the-next-decade/

Immigration as a solution to healthcare workforce shortages – The Niskanen Center: https://www.niskanencenter.org/immigration-as-a-solution-to-healthcare-workforce-shortages/ 

(00:00) Intro (01:02) Bridging the Gap: Meeting Workforce Needs Over the Next Decade (25:17) Immigration as a solution to healthcare workforce shortages (1:03:14) Outro

In this week’s episode, BPC Senior Advisor Theresa Cardinal Brown sits down with Angelo Paparelli, a long-time immigration law expert, and Jeremy Neufeld from the Institute for Progress to discuss the H-1B visa lottery system. They explore the history of the lottery, recent policy changes, and ongoing reform debates, including Jeremy’s proposal for a compensation-based model that prioritizes higher-paid positions. Tune in for an in-depth look at the future of high-skilled immigration policy. 

In this week’s episode, BPC Senior Advisor Theresa Cardinal Brown sits down with Robert Warren from the Center for Migration Studies, Jeffrey Passel from the Pew Research Center, and Jennifer Van Hook from the Migration Policy Institute to discuss methodologies used to estimate the unauthorized immigrant population, the recent trends in those estimates, and how they are used and understood (or misunderstood) in public policy debates. 

Center for Migration Studies: US Undocumented Population Increased to 11.7 Million in July 2023: Provisional CMS Estimates Derived from CPS Data - https://cmsny.org/us-undocumented-population-increased-in-july-2023-warren-090624/ 

Pew Research Center: What we know about unauthorized immigrants living in the U.S. - https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/07/22/what-we-know-about-unauthorized-immigrants-living-in-the-us/ 

MPI: The Unauthorized Immigrant Population Expands amid Record U.S.-Mexico Border Arrivals - https://www.migrationpolicy.org/news/unauthorized-immigrant-population-mid-2023

In this week’s episode, Senior Advisor Theresa Cardinal Brown sits down with Dr. Adam Ozimek, Chief Economist at the Economic Innovation Group, and Connor O’Brien, Research and Policy Analyst at EIG, to explore their latest report, Exceptional by Design: How to Fix High-Skilled Immigration to Maximize American Interests. They discuss the economic benefits of high-skilled immigration, challenge common misconceptions shaping current policy debates, and outline reforms needed to ensure the United States remains globally competitive. 

Exceptional by Design: How to Fix High-Skilled Immigration to Maximize American Interests: https://eig.org/exceptional-by-design/ 

In this week’s episode, Associate Director Jack Malde talks to Executive Vice President of Human Capital, Cheryl Oldham, about BPC’s recently launched Commission on the American Workforce – a bold initiative to develop a national, bipartisan strategy to strengthen the workforce, expand economic opportunity, and ensure the United States remains competitive. Jack and Senior Advisor Theresa Cardinal Brown then discuss the role that immigration might play in this strategy. 

BPC’s Commission on the American Workforce: https://bipartisanpolicy.org/caw/ 

BPC’s Human Capital Program: https://bipartisanpolicy.org/policy-area/human-capital/ 

In this week’s episode, BPC Senior Advisor Theresa Cardinal Brown talks to Jon Baselice from the US Chamber of Commerce and Debu Gandhi from the Centre for American Progress about the outlook for immigration policy under a new Congress and presidency. They cover what we have learned so far and what we can expect under a GOP-trifecta. 

In this week’s episode, BPC Senior Advisor Theresa Cardinal Brown and Associate Director Jack Malde round up some recent news in US immigration policy from the end of 2024 and the first weeks of 2025. They discuss recent disagreements within the Republican party on H-1B visas, President-elect Trump’s immigration position nominations, and where things stand on the concept of “mass deportations.” They also cover Congressional updates including potential action on immigration through the budget reconciliation process, the Congressional Review Act, and the House of Representatives passing the Laken Riley Act.