6 Experts Available for Timely Analysis on New ICE Detention Centers

Director of Communications

In recent weeks, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has made a number of moves to purchase facilities and land to be turned into migrant detention centers, often with fierce pushback by local critics. For reporters covering how these debates continue to play out in states and localities across the country, the following experts are available to comment: 

 

University of Kentucky

Boaz's scholarship is concerned with the intersection of criminal law and immigration law, including detention and universal representation. Prior to teaching, Boaz was a Senior Detention Attorney with the Immigrant Rights Project of the American Friends Service Committee  in Newark, NJ, where he represented individuals held in immigration detention centers while in removal proceedings.

University of Leeds

Conlon’s research investigates the ways immigration controls, including detention, supervision, and border control sites are proliferating as they are increasingly monetized and financialized. With Nancy Hiemstra, she is co-author of the recent book Immigration Detention Inc: The Big Business of Locking Up Migrants.

 

Stony Brook University

Hiemstra’s research focuses on U.S. immigration enforcement practices (especially detention and deportation) and border control strategies. With Deidre Conlon, she is co-author of the recent book Immigration Detention Inc: The Big Business of Locking Up Migrants.

 

 

Mount Holyoke College

Hernández's research focuses on U.S. immigration enforcement policy and history, in particular, the migrant detention regime. Hernández works on local immigration matters in Massachusetts and nationally with groups such as the Detention Watch Network, Freedom for Immigrants, and the National Immigrant Justice Center.

 

 

University of California-Irvine
Mirian Martinez-Aranda

Martinez-Aranda's research examines immigration detention, surveillance, and the intersection of law, race, and ethnicity in immigrant communities. Her work explores how confinement affects social relationships, material conditions, and health outcomes; how immigration detention and surveillance creates lasting impacts on individuals and families; and how immigration enforcement reshapes community life.

 

 

University of California-Berkeley

Patler's research explores how citizenship and legal status shape opportunities for mobility. She is currently conducting research on immigration detention, deportation, and the intersections of immigration and criminal law. Her research has been used in multiple Supreme Court and US Appeals Court cases seeking to limit immigration detention, preserve access to constitutional rights like birthright citizenship, and defend programs like DACA, among other issues.