Estefania Castaneda Perez

Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Southern California

Areas of Expertise:

Connect with Estefania

About Estefania

Castañeda Pérez investigates policing and surveillance systems, border violence, and well-being. Her work centers on perspectives of Latinx transborder commuters, who are U.S. citizens and non-citizens that reside in Mexican border cities but regularly cross the border to the U.S. for work, education, or commerce. Castañeda Pérez's work has been published in Politics, Groups, and Identities, International Migration Review, Migrant Children and Youth, Remezcla, and in academic blogs such as NACLA and the NYU Latinx Project Intervenxions Blog. She has provided expert commentary on border violence to Refinery 29, Los Angeles Times, Telemundo, and Vice.

Contributions | No Jargon Podcast | Member Spotlight | In the News | Publications

Contributions

Border Communities Know ICE’s Impunity All Too Well

Commentary, March 2026

In the News

Guest on Kroc Pod, January 22, 2026.

Interviewed in "Tijuanense Presenta Soluciones a la 'Violencia Fronteriza' en Foro Anual Women Peacemakers 2025," KSDY 50, November 13, 2025.

Quoted by Lauren Gilger in "A Closer Look at the Fronterizos Who Cross the u.s.-Mexico Border Every Day," KJZZ Phoenix , January 6, 2023.

Interviewed in "The Everyday Mistreatment of Transfronterizo Commuters on the Mexico-U.S. Border: A Q&A with Borderlands Scholar Estefanía Castañeda Pérez," The Border Chronicle, March 3, 2022.

Interviewed in "Changes in Border Procedures," Telemundo 20 San Diego, August 26, 2020.

Quoted by Wendy Fry in "Coronavirus Travel Restrictions Strain Cross-Border Relationships," The Los Angeles Times, July 25, 2020.

Publications

"The Talk in La Línea: Transborder Latinx Youths' Protective Pedagogies" in Migrant Children and Youth, (Emerald Publishing, 2025), 21-37.

Explores how Latinx youth who move across the U.S.–Mexico border learn strategies to protect themselves, showing how families and communities teach them how to navigate risk and authority.

"Hierarchy in the Politics of Migration: Revisiting Race, Ethnicity, and Power in the Migration State" (with Angie Bautista-Chavez , Stephanie Chan, and Ankushi Mitra). International Migration Review 58, no. 4 (2024).

Brings together research on migration to show how racial and ethnic hierarchies shape immigration policies and outcomes, influencing how governments treat different groups and distribute power.

"Transborder (In)Securities: Transborder Commuters’ Perceptions of U.S. Customs and Border Protection Policing at the Mexico–U.S. Border" Ethnic and Racial Studies (2020).

Examines how people who regularly cross the U.S.–Mexico border experience policing, showing that many face uncertainty and stress due to inconsistent enforcement and unequal treatment.