The Trump administration’s deportation campaign is having a major impact on American institutions, from local governments and businesses to churches and schools, and has helped to cement immigration enforcement as one of the key civil rights issues of our time. But the system through which these mass deportations are being carried out has been in place for decades, and many of the issues drawing headlines — from overcrowded detention centers, to family separations, and deportations without due process — are nothing new. In this conversation, Dickerson will debunk common misconceptions about how the American immigration system works and how it doesn’t. She will also discuss the United States’ complex history with immigrants, which includes a deeply ingrained, race-based fear that, for centuries, has been directed toward virtually every group of American immigrants, fuelling moments of intense backlash like the one we are in now.

About the speaker:
Caitlin Dickerson has been a staff writer at The Atlantic since 2021. In 2023, she won the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting and the Livingston Award for National Reporting for “We Need to Take Away Children,” an indepth examination of the U.S. government’s child separation policy during the first Trump adminstation. Before joining The Atlantic, Dickerson spent five years as a reporter for The New York Times, and five years as a producer and reporter for NPR. Her investigative reporting and long-form feature writing have also been recognized with a Peabody, an Edward R. Murrow award, and two National Association of Black Journalists Salute to Excellence awards.

About the moderator:
Lynette Clemetson is the Charles R. Eisendrath Director of Wallace House Center for Journalists, home of the Knight-Wallace Fellowships for Journalists and the Livingston Awards for Young Journalists at the University of Michigan.

Reception follwoing dicussion.