I am a Postdoctoral Research Scholar in the School of Politics and Global Studies and the Center for Latina/os and American Politics Research at Arizona State University. I will begin an Assistant Professor position in the School of Politics and Global Studies in the fall of 2021.

My research interests are in U.S. immigration policy and politics, migration control, and Latinx politics. In my work, I integrate frameworks from the fields of political institutions, bureaucratic and administrative politics, transnational politics, international relations, and organizational behavior. During my postdoctoral research year, I will be working on a book manuscript, titled: “Exporting Borders: The Administrative Architecture of U.S. International Migration Control.” In the book project, I examine the internationalization of U.S. immigration enforcement and the role of mid-level bureaucrats and transnational bureaucratic networks.

I earned my PhD in the Department of Government at Harvard University, where I was a doctoral fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, the Multidisciplinary Program in Inequality and Social Policy, and the Immigration Initiative at Harvard. My research also received support from the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies at the University of California, San Diego, the Ford Foundation Fellowship, and the APSA Minority Fellows Program.

I have experience teaching for courses on borders and immigration, survey methodology, and qualitative research methods. In 2019, I received the 2019 Derek C. Bok Award for Excellence in Graduate Student Teaching of Undergraduates.

As a first-generation college student, I attended Rice University, from where I earned a B.A. in Political Science and Policy Studies. I am grateful for the support of the Ralph Bunche Summer Institute, the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship, the Hispanic Scholarship Consortium.

I am the proud daughter of Mexican immigrants from San Luis Potosí, and I am grateful for the support from my hometown, Lockhart, Texas.