Ali Noorani
Leading Authority on Immigration policy
As president & CEO of the National Immigration Forum, Ali provides a principled and reasoned voice on immigration policy and politics at the local, national and global level. He is the author of There Goes the Neighborhood and Crossing Borders.
Ali Noorani is president & chief executive officer of the National Immigration Forum, a nonpartisan advocacy organization working with faith, law enforcement and business leaders to promote the value of immigrants and immigration. Through innovative constituency, communications and advocacy strategies, Ali is one of the nation’s most creative coalition builders.
Ali provides a principled and reasoned voice on immigration policy and politics at the local, national and global level. He has appeared in the majority of mainstream television, radio and print outlets and is a regular speaker at conferences and campuses across the country.
Ali is an Emerson Dial Fellow, a Fellow at the Arizona State University Social Transformation Lab, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, holds a Master’s in Public Health from Boston University and is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley. Ali lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife Toya Gavin, and is the author of There Goes the Neighborhood: How Communities Overcome Prejudice and Meet the Challenge of American Immigration (Prometheus, April 2017) and Crossing Borders: The Reconciliation of a Nation of Immigrants (Rowman & Littlefield, April 2022), as well as host of the “Only in America” podcast.
Speech topics
Crossing Borders, or The Reconciliation of a Nation of Immigrants
A record number of migrants are crossing borders around the world. In response, policymakers struggle to find the balance between compassion and enforcement. Drawing on examples from the Middle East to Europe and Central America to the United States, Ali Noorani lays out the vexing politics of migration. Along the way, he speaks to the inspirational work of evangelical women, dairymen, small town police chiefs and others seeking to treat immigrants, refugees and Americans with dignity.
Books
Crossing Borders: The Reconciliation of a Nation of Immigrants
In an era when immigration on a global scale defines the fears and aspirations of Americans, Crossing Borders presents the complexities of migration through the stories of families fleeing violence and poverty,
There Goes the Neighborhood: How Communities Overcome Prejudice and Meet the Challenge of American Immigration
This compelling approach to the immigration debate takes the reader behind the blaring headlines and into communities grappling with the reality of new immigrants and the changing nature of American identity.