Derechos y Esperanza – Rights and Hope: ASU Law Civil Rights, Migration and Workplace Law Initiative

by David Lopez

Season 2

Part II: How the Supreme Court's Term-End Decisions on Birthright Citizenship, Asylum and Temporary Status Will Impact Communities, Mixed-Status Families and Migrants: The Human Impact in Mexico with Nicole Ramos and Tran Dang

Often the U.S. media fails to cover fully the full human impact of the increasingly punitive immigration system on our own communities, much less the reverberating humanitarian crisis in Mexico and other countries. For this episode, Professor Lopez is joined by two advocates, both originally from the U.S. working transnationally for non-profit humanitarian out of Mexico, Nicole Ramos, co-founder of Al Otro Lado working out of Tijuana, Mexico, and Tran Dang, founder of the Rhizome Center in Guadalajara, Mexico, who explain the full scope of this crisis, including for mixed-status families, resulting from (a) mass detention and deportation policies, and the (b) the effective administrative nullification of longstanding statutory pathways for amnesty and other forms of humanitarian relief, created consistent with international human rights law following World War II. This podcast is for educational purposes only. The views expressed are those of the host and guests and do not reflect the views of Arizona State University or the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. Nothing discussed should be considered legal advice or a substitute for professional counsel. All errors are the responsibility of the speaker.

S2 · E2

Jul 24, 2026

1:02:11

Part I: How the Supreme Court's Term-End Decisions on Birthright Citizenship, Asylum, and Temporary Status Will Impact Communities, Mixed-Status Families and Migrants: A Conversation with César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández

César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández, the Gregory H. Williams Chair in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties at Ohio State University and nationally recognized scholar and contributor to the SCOTUS Blog, walks us through the Supreme Court's recent decisions on birthright citizenship, asylum, and Haitian and Syrian temporary protected status. Professor García Hernández highlights the broad and often uncritical deference the Court has given to the administration's immigration policies, explains the harmful real-world impacts of the asylum and TPS decisions and even, potential dangers on the horizons resulting from the Court's surprisingly narrow decision striking down the Birthright Citizenship executive order as unconstitutional. Our guest then ties the ironies of these decisions to the World Cup which has captivated much of the world's attention over this past summer. This podcast is for educational purposes only. The views expressed are those of the host and guests and do not reflect the views of Arizona State University or the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. Nothing discussed should be considered legal advice or a substitute for professional counsel. All errors are the responsibility of the speaker.

S2 · E1

Jul 22, 2026

1:05:21

Season 1

Can Conservatives Defend America’s Multi-Billion-Dollar Immigration Enforcement System? A Conversation with Cato Institute's Director of Immigration Studies David Bier

As part of an ongoing series examining the increasingly costly and draconian immigration enforcement system from a range of angles (including family and religious conscience), David Lopez sits down with David Bier, Director of Immigration Studies and the Selz Foundation Chair in Immigration Policy at the Libertarian Cato Institute, to discuss our broken and immigration system. Our guest explains how the current system centered on criminalization and deportation has cost taxpayers billions, stripped millions of migrants of legal status, betrays traditional conservative principles of free markets, fiscal responsibility, and small government, and why he compared the plans for escalating mass deportations to "ethnic cleansing." This podcast is for educational purposes only. The views expressed are those of the host and guests and do not reflect the views of Arizona State University or the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. Nothing discussed should be considered legal advice or a substitute for professional counsel. All errors are the responsibility of the speaker.

S1 · E24

Jun 19, 2026

47:19

Did the Supreme Court just complete the gutting of the iconic Voting Rights Act of 1965? A conversation with Todd Cox, Associate Director and Counsel of LDF

The Supreme Court's recent decision in Callais v. Louisiana has raised questions as to whether this was the latest of several decisions eviscerating the landmark and transformative Voting Rights Act of 1965, often called the "crown jewel" of the civil rights era. We are joined by Todd Cox, Associate Director and Counsel of LDF and long-time civil rights attorney, to explain why the Supreme Court's most recent voting rights decision threatens equitable representation of Black and other voters of color, and how the recent pilgrimage of thousands to Selma and Montgomery, Alabama, ground zero for the historic civil rights struggle, to protest the decision promises to revitalize and re-engage citizens to vote and speak up. This podcast is for educational purposes only. The views expressed are those of the host and guests and do not reflect the views of Arizona State University or the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. Nothing discussed should be considered legal advice or a substitute for professional counsel. All errors are the responsibility of the speaker.

S1 · E23

Jun 11, 2026

52:40

The EEOC at a Crossroads: Former Officials on Preserving Equal Opportunity

Throughout its history, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a product of the iconic Civil Rights Act of 1964 and transformative civil right movement has been at the cutting edge in removing discriminatory barriers in the workplace including pressing disparate impact discrimination to address systemic hiring barriers (often confronted by Black and female workers), to the development of hostile workplace and sexual harassment law, the expanded understanding of religious accommodation in the workplace, and the protection of the LGBTQ workers from discrimination. Former EEOC Commissioner Chai Feldblum and former EEOC General Counsel Karla Gilbride join ASU professor David Lopez (also a former EEOC General Counsel) to discuss how several former agency officials organized to speak up against the agency's seeming retreat from its mission. This includes the agency's dismissal of gender identity claims allowed by the Supreme Court, to its refusal to use statutorily-codified disparate impact, its repeal of critical workplace guidance and self-auditing tools, and, most fundamentally, its apparent abandonment of the agency's deep tradition of deliberative, inclusive, bipartisan development of policy to protect workers. This podcast is for educational purposes only. The views expressed are those of the host and guests and do not reflect the views of Arizona State University or the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. Nothing discussed should be considered legal advice or a substitute for professional counsel. All errors are the responsibility of the speaker.

S1 · E22

Jun 2, 2026

1:00:28

Free the Hair! Hour the Courts Have Allowed Hair and Grooming Codes as a Proxy for Race and Other Forms of Discrimination and the Movement to Reimagine Anti-Discrimination Law to Address Discriminatory Grooming Codes

Wendy Greene, the trailblazing Law Professor and Drexel Director of the Center for Law, Policy and Social Action (CLPSA), breaks down how grooming codes and court created distinctions between culture and "immutable: race have intersected to exclude workers with locs, braids, and other natural and protective African-descendent hairstyles, and the grassroots movement to expand our understanding of how race discrimination and create greater workplace fairness and opportunity. This podcast is for educational purposes only. The views expressed are those of the host and guests and do not reflect the views of Arizona State University or the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. Nothing discussed should be considered legal advice or a substitute for professional counsel. All errors are the responsibility of the speaker.

S1 · E21

Apr 24, 2026

1:04:51

Why the Supreme Court's Consideration of Birthright Citizenship and Asylum Matters in the Everyday Lives of Our Communities and For How We See Ourselves as a Nation

ASU Law Vice Dean and Charles J. Merriam Distinguished Professor of Law, and immigration law expert, Angela Banks and Rutgers Professor, Chancellor's Social Justice Scholar, and Founder of the Rutgers Center for Immigrant Justice Rose Cuison-Villazor join David Lopez to break down the Supreme Court's recent arguments on the birthright citizenship executive order, asylum and temporary protective status. These cases may seem complex but our experts explain the human consequences for these decisions and why merely taking these cases matters for impacted communities regardless of the ultimate outcome. This podcast is for educational purposes only. The views expressed are those of the host and guests and do not reflect the views of Arizona State University or the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. Nothing discussed should be considered legal advice or a substitute for professional counsel. All errors are the responsibility of the speaker.

S1 · E20

Apr 22, 2026

49:08

Special Episode: Centering the Victims and Navigating Community Anger and Grief in Reaction to the New York Times’ Revelations Regarding Cesar Chavez

Prof. Lopez interviews Daniel Rodriguez, ASU Law alum and one of the leaders of the immigrants right youth movement and Abdi Lopez, CRMWLI Fellow who grew up in a farmworker family, candidly reflect on the range of emotions unleashed by the NY Times revelations, after five years of investigation, of child abuse and sexism during his time as President of the United Farmworker Movement, centering the victims but examining questions of complicity, the yearning for an individual leader even in collective struggles, broader patterns of abusive power by powerful men, and how this moment can strengthen the movement to give voice and power to farmworkers and others working in low-wage jobs. This podcast is for educational purposes only. The views expressed are those of the host and guests and do not reflect the views of Arizona State University or the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. Nothing discussed should be considered legal advice or a substitute for professional counsel. All errors are the responsibility of the speaker.

S1 · E19

Apr 7, 2026

48:11

Part II: Religious Conscience and Immigration Enforcement: Geographer Describes How His Humanitarian Work with “No More Deaths” Leaving Water for Migrants in the Sonoran Desert Led to Federal Felony Charges, a Two-Year Ordeal and Ultimate Acquittal

Prof. Lopez continues the special series interviewing geographer Scott Warren, a resident of Ajo in the middle of the Sonoran desert and a migration route sometimes called the Devil's Highway due to the large number of migrant deaths discusses how the federal government has leveraged this beautiful but hostile landscape he loves so much through is prevention through deterrence policy, ultimately leading to federal harboring and smuggling charges for his humanitarian work, a two-year ordeal including the assertion of religious conscience defenses under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and finally his ultimate acquittal. This podcast is for educational purposes only. The views expressed are those of the host and guests and do not reflect the views of Arizona State University or the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. Nothing discussed should be considered legal advice or a substitute for professional counsel. All errors are the responsibility of the speaker.

S1 · E18

Apr 2, 2026

51:15

Part I: Religious Conscience and Immigration Enforcement: Elizabeth Reiner Platt, Director of the Union Theological Seminary’s Law on Rights, and Religion Project Examining the Growing Conflict Between Religious Conscience and Immigration Enforcement

Prof. David Lopez and Elizabeth Reiner Platt start their discussion with Reverend Marilynn Budde's call for mercy at the inaugural prayer service, a large section of the inter-denominational faith community has become increasingly vocal about what they view as a harsh and punitive immigration system. Elizabethe Reiner Platt, Director of the Law, Rights, and Religion Project, discusses the organization's recent report analyzing the legal landscape safeguarding religious conscience and observation in the face of state action. This podcast is for educational purposes only. The views expressed are those of the host and guests and do not reflect the views of Arizona State University or the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. Nothing discussed should be considered legal advice or a substitute for professional counsel. All errors are the responsibility of the speaker.

S1 · E17

Apr 2, 2026

43:00

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