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The East Bay Times article explains that immigration officials under the administration of Donald Trump say recent operations in California are targeting undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes. Officials highlight arrests of people accused of serious offenses such as violent crimes or gang activity as evidence that the crackdown is focused on public safety. However, broader data on immigration enforcement by GMC affiliate Kevin Johnson shows that a growing share of people detained by U.S.

This piece by Zack Ford on the Oxford American online discusses the costs of deportation, asking for snippets of evidence from several economists, such as Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak, Treb Allen, Jeffrey A Miron, Melanie Morten and GMC Director Giovanni Peri. The article argues that harsh immigration enforcement in Key West harms both immigrants and the local economy, despite economic research showing immigrants generally increase productivity, innovation, and overall GDP.

GMC Director Giovanni Peri and co-author Daby Bahar were featured in a podcast for VoxDev. Peri and Bahar discusses how refugee flows are increasingly structural rather than temporary, and while most refugees remain in neighbouring low- and middle-income countries, evidence from high-income settings shows that early, well-sequenced integration policies make a decisive difference. Listen to the episode here. 

GMC Director Giovanni Peri recently sat down with Amelia Charles, CEO and founder of a Stealth Startup, for a wide-ranging conversation on immigration and U.S. immigration policy. Their episode is now live on her podcast, Broken—listen here.

Congratulations to GMC Executive Committee Member Santiago Pérez, whose co-authored paper on immigration and crime was the most visited chart in the American Economic Association's 2025 Research Highlights Featured Charts. The study, co-authored with Ran Abramitzky, Leah Boustan, Elisa Jácome, and Juan David Torres, assembled the first comprehensive picture of immigrant incarceration rates across 150 years of U.S. history. Their findings challenge widely held assumptions about immigration and public safety, revealing new patterns in the data.

We are pleased to announce the publication of Movilidades Humanas en las Américas: entre regímenes de expulsión, políticas de contención e industrias de cuidado, coedited by Kelly Muñoz Balcázar, Yuliet Bedoya, and GMC Deputy Director Robert McKee Irwin.

GMC Director Giovanni Peri’s presentation was featured at the Hoover Institution’s 2026 Immigration Policy and the Economics of Innovation conference. The conference highlighted how the arrival of highly skilled foreign workers in the United States generates substantial gains in trade, entrepreneurship, and innovation—benefits that other countries may increasingly capture if the United States continues to tighten its immigration policies.

GMC affiliate Kevin Johnson was quoted in a recent article in The Sacramento Bee on progressive California lawmakers and their latest tax proposal. The proposal targets international corporations, with lawmakers arguing that existing tax rules allow these companies to disproportionately reduce their state tax liabilities. The plan reflects broader legislative efforts to reform the corporate tax system and raise revenue more equitably, part of an ongoing wave of policy debates at the State Capitol.

GMC Executive Committee members Raquel Aldana, Erin Hamilton, Robert Irwin, Brad Jones, and Giovanni Peri, together with faculty affiliate Kevin Johnson, reflected on Solito through the lenses of economics, law, sociology, political science, and the humanities. Drawing on their research and professional experience, the panel examined the structural forces that shape migration to the United States, the lived realities of forced displacement and deportation, and the consequences of immigration enforcement for individuals, families, and society.

GMC director Giovanni Peri was invited by Donn Tice at the Commonwealth Club World Affairs in San Francisco for a Panel with Jennifer Sciubba, Ph.D., Daniel Costa and Russell Hancock to talk about the future of population change and immigration. See the full recording here

Affiliate Kevin Johnson was quoted in an article in the Sacramento Bee about the rising ICE deportations in California. As of 2025, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement significantly increased deportations from California, removing at least 8,250 people during the first nine months of the year, with the number of deportations climbing sharply over the summer. Must be subscribed to read full article. 

 GMC Director Giovanni Peri's recently delivered a  lecture on the Economics of Immigration at the University Retirement Community. Watch it here. 

In a Parakeet Risk podcast with Jowanza Joseph, GMC director Giovanni Peri examined how removing large numbers of workers from the labor force can reduce GDP, employment, and industrial output. He explained that construction is especially reliant on immigrant labor, so disruptions can delay projects, undermine facility maintenance, and deter long-term capital investments. Peri highlighted historical case studies, including the 1930s Mexican repatriation and WWII-era exclusion policies, to show how labor removals created shortages and economic inefficiencies.

Mexican university el Tec de Monterrey has produced a new video feature about the Humanizing Deportation project: "Humanizando la Deportación: historias reales para comprender el impacto de las políticas migratorias", including interviews with project PI, GMC Deputy Director Robert McKee Irwin, as well as Maricruz Castro of el Tec, and several migrant collaborators from Tijuana. Watch the feature here.

With no major immigration reform in decades, U.S. presidents have relied on temporary executive actions—such as DACA, humanitarian parole, and Temporary Protected Status (TPS)—to manage rising numbers of undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers. These measures offer short-term relief but remain vulnerable to reversal.