With the presidential election in full force, a University program hosted a conference to focus on immigration and migration within the United States and how it will play a role in November.

The Women & Gender in Global Perspectives Program hosted the two-day conference on Monday and Tuesday.

“The 2016 U.S. Presidential election is likely to be defined as one of the most important since World War II and certainly one that will shape and define global and domestic policies for the next 50-100 years,” according to the program’s website.

The focus of this conference was on the issues and attitudes as well as the historical, economic and legal dimensions associated with people immigrating, migrating or seeking refugee status.

Some central issues to the election are employment, inequality, education, gender, free trade, terrorism and multiculturalism. The issues of immigration, migration and refugees have dominated the primary season and will continue to largely dominate the general election cycle.

The conference brought together experts from a variety of disciplines and allowed time for interactive dialogues between presenters and conference attendees.

“The information that is presented is really relevant to the course content. We are talking about different groups of minority populations and issues of intersectionalities,” said Lenore Matthew, Ph.D candidate, after the “Executive Powers of the President” session.

Speeches related to the theme were divided into seven sub-topics: history of immigration/setting the context, executive powers of the President, Asian-Americans, working class white, African-Americans, Economics and Latina/os.

“Putting that in the context of the 2016 election added another element and level of complexity that we thought is very important to our students,” Matthew said.

Matthew, a co-instructor of a class titled SOCW 300: Diversity: Identities and Issues, brought some of her students to the event to engage with the presenters.

“Understanding the legal aspects of executive power and how those powers can be used to shape sociopolitical, economic and social well-being going forward in the U.S. is really helpful,” she said.  

The speech “The President’s Immigration Power” in this session was given by Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Law Jamelle Sharpe.

“In the immigration context, Congress relies on the executive branch, mostly the president, and today the Department of Homeland Security, to enforce the policies,” Sharpe said during his speech.

Sharpe divided the speech into three topics. He first discussed how the Constitution gives the president and congress ultimate say on immigration. He then talked about how courts responded to Obama’s immigration authority and Donald Trump’s immigration proposals.

“It is critically important for all of us to think about this issue of presidential policy making and the decision not to influence federal law more abroad, and not just in immigration context,” he said.

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