Neil Shorthouse, AWER Secretary, introduced longtime AWER member and renown immigration attorney Mark Newman on the current state of U.S. immigration policy under the Trump administration. The session covered the structural and political forces reshaping immigration enforcement, the economic impact of immigrant labor, and the legal rights of individuals facing ICE encounters. Mark summarized some of the realities:

• The Trump administration's immigration policy is built on three pillars: slowing legal processes, removing benefits, and aggressive enforcement—designed to make the U.S. inhospitable to immigrants.
• Temporary Protected Status (TPS) a long-standing program granting legal protection to nationals from countries experiencing crises, now being dismantled for over one million people cancellations affect over one million people, many of whom have lived and worked in the U.S. for 15–20 years.
• DACA - Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals - protects approximately two million individuals who grew up in the U.S. and have no meaningful ties to their countries of origin.
• International students represent a critical revenue and human capital stream for U.S. universities; proposed four-year visa limits threaten this pipeline.
• Immigrants—documented and undocumented—pay taxes and contribute to the economy, with each immigrant hire estimated to generate three additional American jobs.
• The single greatest factor in keeping the U.S. out of recession during COVID was the immigrant workforce.
• Refugee admissions have been cut to effectively zero, except for a carve-out for white South Africans, which Mark Newman described as the clearest example of race-based policy he has seen in 50 years of practice.
• Practical advice for individuals: carry a passport, birth certificate, photo ID, or naturalization certificate at all times.

The Trump administration's approach to immigration, largely shaped by Deputy Domestic Policy Advisor Stephen Miller, rests on a deliberate strategy of deterrence and attrition. Rather than relying solely on deportation, the policy aims to make life in the U.S. so difficult—through slowed processing, removal of benefits, and aggressive enforcement—that immigrants choose to leave voluntarily. Mark Newman described this as analogous to a business strategy: slow the process enough and customers go elsewhere.

Enforcement actions have resulted in documented abuses, including incidents in Minneapolis where two American citizens were killed, cases in Maine where documented immigrants were targeted, and an incident in Austin, Texas, where a legally present Venezuelan man was shot in the neck, briefly hospitalized, taken into ICE custody, and only returned to proper medical care after public outcry days later.

Mark Newman drew on research from the right-leaning Cato Institute and broader economic data to argue that immigrants—regardless of documentation status—are a net economic benefit to the United States. Key points included:

• Immigrants take fewer government benefits relative to their economic contributions.
• Many undocumented workers pay into Social Security using borrowed or assigned Social Security numbers, contributing funds they will never personally access.
• The immigrant workforce was identified as the single greatest factor in keeping the U.S. out of recession during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• For every immigrant hired, economists estimate three additional American jobs are created—directly countering the argument that immigration displaces American workers.
• International students represent the highest tuition tier at U.S. universities. At Georgia Tech, international students make up 45% of graduate STEM enrollment. A proposed four-year visa cap would severely disrupt university finances and the pipeline of skilled researchers and faculty.
• The Rust Belt city of Dayton, Ohio, was cited as a specific example where recruiting immigrant workers—including Haitian TPS holders—helped revive a struggling local economy.

Historic U.S. Policy Undermined -The U.S. historically admitted up to 110,000–150,000 refugees annually. During Trump's first term, that number was reduced to as low as 16,000. In the current administration, refugee admissions have been cut to effectively zero—with one notable exception: white Afrikaner South Africans. Mark described this as the most overtly race-based immigration policy he has encountered in his 50-year career and noted that there is significant opposition to the policy within South Africa itself, with many Afrikaners publicly rejecting what they view as an unwanted handout.

Mark expressed deep concern about the erosion of the rule of law as a functional first barrier in immigration enforcement by citing several examples including government officers conducting enforcement actions operate with broad immunity, making it extremely difficult to obtain damages even in cases of clear misconduct. Mark explained that the environment forces lawyers and affected individuals into a purely reactive posture: rather than advising clients on how to follow the law, attorneys must now prepare for the possibility that the law will not protect them, and must respond after the fact through litigation.

Respectfully submitted, 

AWER Keyway Speaker reporters, Jared Evens, Christopher Hempfling, CJ Stewart, and Neil Shorthouse