Think Immigration: A Focus on Executive Power in the Spring 2026 AILA Law Journal

The immigration bar is dealing with an even greater expansion of executive power on immigration during this second Trump Administration. We see President Trump is utilizing deportation and detention, restricting humanitarian protections, and targeting legal residents and refugees. Noncitizens in the United States live in fear of detention, deportation, or revocation of their visas if they exercise their free speech rights under the First Amendment.

It is in this environment that we bring you the latest issue of the AILA Law Journal, one focused on examining the different dimensions of the expansion of executive power and offering practical strategies for representing clients in the face of that power.

We encourage anyone interested in the issues surrounding immigration law and policy to take a look at these important articles, to delve into what immigration practitioners and researchers are seeing and hearing in this era. We cannot promise you entirely uplifting and optimistic reading, but we also are not destined to a morass of darkness and angst. Because truly, learning and knowledge of how systems work and don’t work, what overreach looks like and what solutions are available, are all more important now than ever. For AILA members but also for anyone and everyone.

There is an ever-growing flood of misinformation and disinformation about every aspect and area of immigration law. By offering a reasoned voice, and a platform for authors with varied experiences and expertise, we hope to offset that flood with genuine, hard-won, and well-thought-out ideas and understanding.

AILA members – your access to the complete digital edition of this issue is (as always) free as part of your membership in our organization. To those interested laypeople out there, we will be amplifying each article along the way, so stay tuned to our social media platforms for access to individual articles.