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Jane Lilly Lopez

Assistant Professor of Sociology, Brigham Young University-Provo
Chapter Member: Utah SSN
Areas of Expertise:

About Jane

López's research focus is on experiences at the intersection of immigration, citizenship, law, and the family. Her book, “Unauthorized Love: Mixed-Citizenship Couples Negotiating Intimacy, Immigration, and the State” (Stanford University Press) offers an intimate examination of the effects of US immigration laws on mixed-citizenship American families (families composed of individuals from two different countries/with two different citizenships) and calls for a rethinking of citizenship as a family affair.

Publications

"’Til Deportation Do Us Part: The Effect of U.S. Immigration Law on Mixed-StatusCouples’ Experience of Citizenship" in Within and Beyond Citizenship, edited by Nando Sigona and Roberto Gonzales.

Demonstrates that the experience of citizenship can be significantly enhanced or diminished without undergoing a change in personal legal citizenship status, but rather as a result of family-level citizenship.

"’Impossible Families’: Mixed-Citizenship Status Couples and the Law" Law & Policy 37 (2015): 93-118.

Exposes the family-level effects of citizenship and reveals that immigration and citizenship laws focused on individuals can reach beyond those individuals to their family members. Argues that citizens in mixed-citizenship marriages are obliged by the law to live the immigrant experience because of their spouses’ immigrant status.

"Obama’s Immigration Reform: The Triumph of Executive Action" (with John D. Skrentny). Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality 2, no. 1 (2013): 62-79.

Examines how President Obama used executive action to secure support from Latino voters despite his inability to deliver comprehensive immigration reform.