Margy O'Herron

Immigration Law and Policy Fellow

Margy O'Herron is an immigration law and policy expert at Cornell Law School and the Brennan Center for Justice and a former Senior Policy Advisor for Immigration at the Executive Office of the President of the United States. O’Herron has written on Trump’s entry bans before and says this ban does not consider the impacts it will have on all Americans.

“This action hurts American employers and families as well as the immigrants who have waited in line — often for years — and are trying to follow the rules. 

“The administration’s actions do not consider the harm to Americans and seem to be part of a long-term effort by the president and his supporters to exclude certain populations from the country, including Muslims, Haitians, Venezuelans, and Africans.”

Jaclyn Kelley-Widmer

Assistant Clinical Professor of Law

Jaclyn Kelley-Widmer, clinical professor of law at Cornell Law School, says that this pause is an illogical reaction to a tragic event. 

 

"The categorical pause on all types of immigration applications for individuals from these countries is an outsized and illogical reaction to a tragic event. Applicants for citizenship, asylum, and other immigration status are already vetted for security and eligibility. They are put through rigorous, multistep, complex processes for each application, regardless of their country of origin. To pause all cases because of the actions of one person strains the limits of executive discretion. Through the Immigration and Nationality Act, Congress has provided the criteria for visa eligibility; the executive branch cannot simply cease to administer these laws."

 

"The pause will also only contribute more to the tremendous backlog of immigration cases, which has already been exacerbated by partisan firing of immigration judges and asylum officers. Some people caught in this pause were about to become citizens after years or even decades in the United States. Others are desperate for safety and stability and had already been waiting interminably for an answer. This pause destabilizes individuals and their communities and contributes to further fear, especially against the backdrop of increased enforcement happening today."