I am a Professor of Economics at the University of California, Merced. I study how immigration policy shapes the lives of immigrant families and children, in the United States and abroad.
My work covers immigration enforcement, legal status programs such as DACA, asylum, the immigration courts and high-skilled visas. I look at their effects on schooling, health, work, family formation and public safety. I use administrative and survey data with quasi-experimental designs.
I am a Research Fellow at IZA, CReAM and GLO, and affiliated with the Berkeley Population Center and the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute. I am Associate Editor of the Spanish Economic Review. I serve on the Advisory Council of the Americas Center at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and on a National Academies consensus committee on forced migration. My work has informed testimony before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court. I am a past President of the American Society of Hispanic Economists and received its Outstanding Achievement Award. I am originally from Sevilla, Spain.
Education
- Ph.D. in Applied Economics
- Law degree
Areas of Expertise
Labor Economics, Immigration Policy, Immigration Enforcement, Asylum and Forced Migration, High-Skilled Immigration, Applied Microeconomics