Ming Hsu Chen

Professor and Harry & Lillian Hastings Research Chair, Director of the Race, Immigration, Citizenship, and Equality Program, University of California, Hastings College of Law

Chapter Member: Bay Area SSN

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(303) 736-9326

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About Ming

Chen is Professor and Faculty-Director of the Center for Race, Immigration, Citizenship, and Equality at the University of California College of Law, San Francisco (formerly UC Hastings). She is also affiliated with the University of Colorado, Boulder. Chen brings an interdisciplinary perspective to the study of immigration, civil rights, and the administrative state. Her research on citizenship bridges law and social science. She writes at the intersection of immigration and administrative law.

Contributions | No Jargon Podcast | In the News | Publications

Contributions

How The United States Can Support Immigrants En Route to Citizenship

Key Findings Brief, August 2020

In the News

Opinion: "California Cannot Abandon Undocumented Students After UC Regents Cave to Politics," Ming Hsu Chen, The Sacramento Bee, February 24, 2024.

Quoted by Natalie Zhang in "How International Students Became a White House Target During the Coronavirus Pandemic," CNBC , August 20, 2022.

Guest on CNBC Segment, August 20, 2020.

Opinion: "US Citizenship Applications Are Backlogged, Prolonging The Wait For Civil And Voting Rights," Ming Hsu Chen, The Conversation,

Opinion: "Are the Dreamers Safe Now That the Supreme Court Ruled? Not Exactly. Here’s What’s Still Up in the Air.," Ming Hsu Chen, The Washington Post, June 19, 2020.

Opinion: "Silence and the Second Wall," Ming Hsu Chen (with Zachary New), Southern California Interdisciplinary Law Journal, February 25, 2019.

Publications

"Citizenship Denied: Implications of the Naturalization Backlog for Noncitizens in the Military" Denver Law Review 98, no. 669 (2020).

Documents barriers to citizenship by analyzing the causes and consequences of citizenship denials in general and military naturalization. Offers solutions that bolster immigrants, the military, and the meaning of citizenship for those seeking to obtain it and confronting institutional barriers.

Sacred Places, Civic Purposes: Should Government Help Faith-Based Charity? (edited with EJ Dionne) (Brookings Institution Press, 2001).

The authors – experts in their respective fields and from various walks of life – examine the promises and perils of faith-based organizations in preventing teen pregnancy, reducing crime and substance abuse, fostering community development, bolstering child care, and assisting parents and children on education issues. They offer conclusions about what congregations are currently doing, how government could help, and how government could usefully get out of the way.