About Just Conversations

Just Conversations is a series co-presented by the Center for Brooklyn History and Brooklyn Org that brings into dialogue issues facing our borough, city, and society and gives voice to the change makers who move us towards a more equitable future.

The United States is facing an existential immigration moment. Deportations without due process. Military deployment at the border. Revoked humanitarian parole. Threats to Temporary Protected Status. The resurrection of a 227-year-old law—the Alien Enemies Act—to expel Venezuelans. A chilling disregard for long-held rules and norms, all adding up to a climate of fear.

But is this moment truly new? Or the continuation of an old story? The answer is both.

While shocking, these recent actions are not surprising. Many of the laws that justify our new policies have long existed, but were rarely enforced with such vigor. Our history has always held both xenophobia and open arms. The tension between America’s identity as a welcoming nation and its legacy of exclusion is now erupting into a battle over the very narrative of who we are.

Join us for a timely and urgent discussion with three leading voices in immigration: preeminent immigration historian Nancy Foner; former United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees and Executive Dean of The New School for Social Research Alex Aleinikoff; and Executive Director of the Muslim Community Network Husein Yatabarry. Led in conversation by one of the most trusted immigration writers in the country Dara Lind, we’ll explore the roots of today’s policies, challenge myths about American openness, and ask what future we are building and what is ultimately at stake.

Participants

Alex Aleinikoff is the Executive Dean of The New School for Social Research and University Professor at The New School. Alex has written widely in the areas of immigration and refugee law and policy, transnational law, citizenship, race, and constitutional law. His latest book, New Narratives on the Peopling of America (co-edited with Alexandra Delano), was published by the Johns Hopkins University Press in 2024. Before coming to The New School, Alex was United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees from 2010-2015. He was Dean, Executive Vice President for Law Center Affairs, and a faculty member at Georgetown University Law Center, and was a faculty member at the University of Michigan Law School. He served as Co-chair of the Immigration Task Force for President Barack Obama’s transition team in 2008. From 1994 to 1997, he served as the general counsel, and then Executive Associate Commissioner for Programs, at the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Alex received a JD from Yale Law School and a BA and honorary Doctorate of Laws from Swarthmore College. He was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2014.

Nancy Foner is Distinguished Professor Emerita of Sociology at Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Her recent work has focused on comparing immigration in the US today and in the past; immigrant minorities in the US and Europe; and how immigration has been remaking American society. She is the author or editor of more than twenty books, including From Ellis Island to JFK: New York’s Two Great Waves of Immigration (Yale University Press, 2000) and One Quarter of the Nation: Immigration and the Transformation of America (Princeton University Press, 2022).  Her latest book, Immigration: How the Past Shapes the Present, will be published by Polity Press in 2026.  Among her many honors, she is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Science and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Tenement Museum.

Dara Lind is a Senior Fellow at the American Immigration Council, where she works to help the public better understand immigration policy with written resources, public engagement, and guidance of colleagues’ efforts to ensure the Council’s experts have the greatest possible impact. Before joining the Council, she was one of the most trusted and respected immigration reporters in the country, first at Vox (where she also co-hosted the policy podcast The Weeds) and then at ProPublica. Her work has also appeared in the New York Times, the American Prospect, Democracy, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, and Vanity Fair.

Husein Yatabarry is the Executive Director of the Muslim Community Network (MCN) in New York City. Born and raised in the Bronx to Gambian Muslim immigrants, Husein’s personal journey navigating identity, community, and resilience shapes his leadership today. Prior to joining MCN, he led organizational growth at Neighborhood United, a nonprofit supporting youth in the South Bronx, and spent several years in educational leadership roles across NYC public charter schools. Recognized for his commitment to community service and education, Husein’s work is driven by a passion for justice, inclusion, and empowering historically marginalized communities.