Nov 14, 2025
What does it actually mean to be “documented” or “undocumented” as a migrant to the USA? What’s the lived reality like of existing somewhere in between the two, including under the category of “temporary protected status”, or TPS, created by Congress in 1990 for people from countries deemed too unsafe to return to? UCLA sociologist and leading migration expert Cecilia Menjívar joins us to discuss her concept of “liminal legality”. Elaborated in a 2006 paper following fieldwork through the 1990s with migrants from Central America, the term remains enduringly relevant in Trump’s America - where the administration has moved to roll back TPS for people from countries such as Afghanistan, Venezuela and Syria. A conversation about precarity, lived experience, and policy - and a reminder that “creating a group of people whose rights are diminishing by the day” harms not only those individuals, but all of us.
**Recorded Sept 2025**