Research

I’m broadly interested in migration and American Politics research using causal inference and other quantitative methods.

My research primarily focuses on how immigration policy affects political behavior, attitudes, and identity in the United States. More specifically, I examine the relationships between state-level immigrant policy and outcomes such as immigrant political participation, linked fate, and policy preferences.

My recent work examines how state-level immigrant integration policy features affect attitudes using an original survey, unique measurements of fairness, and a pre-registered, single-profile conjoint experiment. I test how policy attributes such as eligibility criteria and social service provision affect perceptions of fairness and policy support, finding little evidence for economic and cultural threat arguments.

I show that Americans are supportive of allocating social services to immigrants when a variety of law and security-based criteria are met. Moreover, I find very limited evidence that immigrants’ region of origin influences perceptions of fairness or policy support.

The collection of this original large survey (n=3,000) was supported by numerous successful grant applications and is the basis for ongoing and future projects addressing American immigration attitudes. It was recently awarded additional funding from the American Political Science Association Centennial Center.

Articles in Peer-Reviewed Journals

• “Inclusive State Policies, Stronger Identities: The Impact of Policy on Latino Immigrant Linked Fate.” 2026. Politics, Groups, and Identities 14(3): 479–502.
  • Online Appendix
  • Replication Files

Submitted Manuscripts

• “What Makes Policy Fair? Evidence from U.S. Immigrant Integration Policy and Public Opinion.” Pre-print available.
  • UC Santa Barbara Dept. of Political Science Manzer-Wesson Award for Best Conference Paper (2026)

Research in Progress

• “Measuring Fairness in Empirical Research.” Working Paper.
• “Restrictions Increase Willingness to Pay for Immigrant Integration Policy.” With Clayton Nall. Working Paper.
• “State Policy and Immigrant Political Participation: Is Participation Decreased by More Inclusive Policy?” Working Paper.
• “When Threat Doesn’t Mobilize: Linking Policy Perceptions with Behavior Among Non-Citizen Immigrants.” Working Paper.
• “State Integration Policy, Perceptions of Fairness, and Attitudes toward Asylum Seekers in the United States.” Data Collected.
• “Immigrant Integration Policy and Perceptions of Fairness by Race.” Data Collected.
• “Zero-Sum Thinking and Policy Attitudes.” With Clayton Nall. Data Collected.
• “Fair Policy, Favorable Opinion? Increasing the Salience of Immigrant Integration Policy.”
• “Extending from the European Union: What Type of Asylum Regime Would Americans Prefer?”

Other Writing

• “Inclusive—Not Hostile—State Policies Promote Linked Fate Among Latino Immigrants.” November 24, 2025. London School of Economics United States Politics and Policy Blog.