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The following University of California, Davis, experts on immigration policy are available to speak to the news media. Keep an eye on this and other current expert lists at www.ucdavis.edu/news/experts . These resources will be updated regularly. This list was updated in June 2025. 

Birthright Citizenship

Constitutional history

professor of history, can explain the history of birthright citizenship and is an expert source on the history of the Constitution. He is featured speaking about birthright citizenship in this story. Birthright citizenship is national citizenship received automatically by a person born within a nation’s territory. Its foundation in U.S. law is Section 1 of the  to the Constitution. Downs has studied the history of the Constitution extensively and points out that this concept of birthright citizenship was first defined in the Civil Rights Act of 1866. This law was passed after the end of the U.S. Civil War as a way to affirm the rights of Black Americans who were formerly enslaved. Contact:

Legal interpretations, current law

, a , is a prominent scholar on birthright citizenship, particularly concerning its interpretation within the . He has submitted amicus briefs to the Supreme Court in cases related to birthright citizenship, including those challenging seeking to end birthright citizenship. He has authored briefs and essays arguing that the 14th Amendment's Citizenship Clause grants citizenship to all individuals born within the United States, regardless of their parents' immigration status. See also, immigration and race, below. Contact: (530) 752-3112, gjchin@ucdavis.edu.

General immigration law and policy, reform, DACA, U.S. Mexico border and civil rights

, the Mabie-Apallas Professor of Public Interest Law and Chicano/a Studies at the UC Davis School of Law, is one of the nation’s leading immigration law scholars and was dean of UC Davis School of Law through September 2024. He can speak to many immigration general issues, including employment. He is co-editor of the influential Immigration Prof Blog, and co-author of Understanding Immigration Law (2009) (third edition, 2019), and Immigration Law and the US-Mexico Border (2011) (Latino Literacy Now’s International Latino Book Awards – Best Reference Book). He posted this blog on the San Antonio tragic deaths in June 2022 Contact: (530) 752-0243, krjohnson@ucdavis.edu.

Immigration policy, criminal law, immigration history and race

professor of law, is a teacher and scholar of Immigration Law, Criminal Procedure, and Race and Law. His scholarship has appeared in the Penn, UCLA, Cornell, and Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties law reviews and the Yale, Duke and Georgetown law journals among others. He is director of  at the law school. He is also an expert on Asian discrimination and the Chinese Exclusion Act. Contact: (530) 752-3112, gjchin@ucdavis.edu.

Immigration policy and public opinion

, professor of political science in the College of Letters and Science, is an expert on U.S. immigration policy, and in particular U.S.-Mexico border policy. His research focuses on immigration policy making at the federal, state, and local levels as well as public opinion regarding immigration policy and immigrants more generally.  Jones is also an expert on the issue of migrant deaths on the U.S.-Mexico border. Apart from teaching and researching issues related to immigration and Latina/o politics, he is an authorized driver for Humane Borders, a Tucson-based humanitarian organization. Contact: bsjjones@ucdavis.edu.

Children and trauma (family separation at borders)

, associate professor of human development, Department of Human Ecology, studies the impact of stress and trauma on children and families. She has studied stressors such as poverty, marital conflict and violence, and child abuse/maltreatment. In addition to her research and teaching on issues related to stressful early life experiences, she has also partnered with various child welfare agencies to conduct trainings with social workers who deal with traumatized children. She is also a foster mother for Yolo County. Contact: lchibel@ucdavis.edu

Immigration detention, undocumented youth, health and wellbeing of undocumented

associate professor of sociology, studies when, how and why people migrate. She is an affiliate of the UC Davis , the UC Davis and the . She has authored articles and books including: : The Lives of Former U.S. Migrants in Mexico City; ; among 1^st and 1.5 generation Latinx immigrants in California and among Mexican-origin mothers in the United States.  She is the co-author, with Robert Hummer, of Population Health in America. Contact: erhamilton@ucdavis.edu

Rights of detained immigrants

, co-director of the Immigration Law Clinic at the School of Law, has extensive litigation experience defending the rights of immigrants and is a nationally recognized expert on immigration detention issues, including the rights of federally detained immigrants, as well as the immigration consequences of criminal convictions. She also works with refugees at the intersection of the criminal and immigration justice systems. Contact: 530-754-4833, hscooper@ucdavis.edu.

Immigration policy and the economy, foreign workers and students

, professor of economics, studies immigration’s effect on the economy, and highly skilled workers, students and refugees. Peri also is director of the at UC Davis. Read his immigration fact . Read a policy paper the implications of forcing foreign students out of the United States. Contact: gperi@ucdavis.edu

Deportation, family reunification, migrants in Tijuana, Central American asylum

, professor of Spanish, is a scholar on migration and border studies, gender and sexuality studies, and digital storytelling. He is co-director of the Mellon Initiative in . As U.S. policymakers struggle to find a policy solution to address the restrictions on legal immigration that lead to undocumented immigration, deportations have become a reality affecting the lives of millions of immigrants and local communities. Irwin heads up a project that tells this story, " which includes video stories of those who have been deported abruptly and the adjustments they have had to make to life in a country with which they are unfamiliar. See this for more details. He has written several opinion pieces and the challenges of migrants. Contact: rmirwin@ucdavis.edu

Immigration and the U.S.-Mexico border

Rachel St. John, professor of history, is an expert on the history of the U.S.-Mexico border and can speak about the history of the southern border, border control, border walls and fences, immigration and transborder movement, and border issues in general. Her first book, Line in the Sand: A History of the Western U.S.-Mexico Border, was published in 2011. She has spoken about border issues on NPR, and her work has been published in a variety of historical journals. Contact: rcstjohn@ucdavis.edu.

Human smuggling

David Kyle, professor of sociology, is an expert on human smuggling and trafficking of people globally. His volume on the topic, , is now in its second edition, and a third edition is in the works. A documentary on the book that aired on PBS and other outlets was called Dying to Leave. He was interviewed on CNN International in July 2017 regarding the case of a human trafficking operation discovered in San Antonio, Texas, that killed 10 people and has continued to be interviewed by major publications and network television on human trafficking operations in breaking news. Contact: 530-220-3576, DJkyle@ucdavis.edu.

Migrant children, schools, and educational inequality

Jacob Hibel, associate professor of sociology and Chancellor’s Fellow, studies the educational consequences of large-scale immigration for children, communities, and school systems. He has published research on the links between community immigration context and Mexican American children’s early academic development; the associations among Latino immigrant flows, “white flight,” and charter, magnet, and private school enrollments; Latino-White school segregation; and immigrant-native disparities in children’s school readiness. He is currently investigating the connections between school districts’ immigration histories and students’ access to special education, gifted/talented, and English language acquisition services. This project involves quantitative and qualitative studies that will: 1) evaluate the extent to which ethnoracial, linguistic, and immigrant–native inequalities in special service provision are shaped by communities’ immigration contexts; 2) assess the relationship between California school districts’ demographic contexts and their adoption of policies and practices aimed at mitigating these inequalities; and 3) identify the most salient opportunities and obstacles facing California educators in their efforts to secure first and second generation children’s access to special education services. Contact: jhibel@ucdavis.edu

Labor and immigration

, professor of agricultural and resource economics, has published extensively on labor, migration, economic development and immigration policy issues. He has testified before Congress and state and local agencies on these issues, particularly as they relate to agricultural labor. Martin edits Migration News and Rural Migration News, which provide information about global and U.S. migration issues. features Martin’s expertise. Contact: plmartin@ucdavis.edu.

Immigration, farm labor and rural poverty

Agricultural and resource economics professor  studies migration and its impacts on Pacific Rim countries, specifically Mexico, Central America and Ecuador. His most recent work documents a decline in farm labor supply from rural Mexican households, which has far-reaching implications for U.S. agriculture, immigration policy and the fate of rural communities. He co-wrote, with UC Davis Professor Philip Martin and Urban Institute researcher Michael Fix, the book, The New Rural Poverty. Contact: taylor@primal.ucdavis.edu.