“Arizona and Immigration: Perspectives and Policy Considerations” with TJ Davis

PRESENTATION DESCRIPTION

Arizona’s position on the US southern border has placed it at ground zero in an ongoing immigration crisis that continues to incite often ugly arguments. The arguments are not new in character or content. The size and persistence of the surge at the border is new, however. The US Border Patrol reported more than two million encounters along the US/Mexico border in fiscal 2023. The surge and the humanitarian crisis it has created, along with an estimated 11 million unauthorized immigrants in the United States, demand popular attention. This presentation briefly reviews the immigration crisis and its impact and invites reflection on how we, the people, in Arizona might best think about border and immigration policy.

This program is cohosted by the Apache Junction Public Library.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Thomas J. Davis is an historian, lawyer, and professor emeritus at Arizona State University, Tempe, where he taught U.S. constitutional and legal history. Dr. Davis also taught as a visiting professor of law at the ASU College of Law. He received his PhD in U.S. history from Columbia University in the City of New York and his JD cum laude from the University at Buffalo School of Law in New York. He has been an AZ Humanities Public Scholar Nominee and served as Arizona’s State Scholar for the 2020-21 Voices and Votes: Democracy in America, Museum on Main St. (MoMS), Smithsonian Institution, traveling exhibition. AZ Humanities bestowed on Dr. Davis the 2021 Founder’s Community Partner Award, recognizing his work “to further public humanities through sustained collaboration and exemplary community outreach.”