S. Deborah Kang

Kang's research focuses on immigration law enforcement in the United States with a particular focus on the nation's northern and southern borders. In the wake of recent controversies and debates regarding the immigration policies of the Trump administration, Kang's work has offered context and insights into the workings of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) as well as the former Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). Published by Oxford University Press in 2017, Kang's first book, The INS on the Line: Making Immigration Law on the US-Mexico Border, 1917-1954, offers a comprehensive legal history of the INS and its enforcement operations. Kang is a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at the University of California, San Diego. She also serves as a member of the editorial board of Western Legal History: The Journal of the Ninth Judicial Circuit Historical Society.