Caitlin Patler is Associate Professor of Sociology at UC
Davis. Dr. Patler’s research explores citizenship and
legal status as axes of stratification that shape
opportunities for mobility. She is currently conducting
longitudinal mixed-methods research on the impacts of
long-term immigration detention and on the Deferred Action for
Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Dr. Patler received her
Ph.D. in Sociology from UCLA. Prior to joining the UC Davis
faculty, she was a UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellow in
the Department of Criminology, Law and Society at UC Irvine.
The USA maintains the world’s largest immigration detention system. In two recent studies, we examined the health of detained immigrants in California during detention and following release.
In the first study, we examined confinement conditions (including sleep deprivation, social isolation from family via barriers to visitation, witnessing or experiencing abuse or harassment, and barriers to needed physical and mental health care) and found that each condition increased the likelihood of deleterious physical and/or mental health conditions among study participants.
The 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program granted work authorization and protection from deportation to more than 800,000 young undocumented immigrants who arrived to the United States as minors. In a recent study, we investigated the association between this expansion of legal rights and birth outcomes among 72,613 singleton births to high school-educated Mexican-immigrant women in the United States from June 2010 to May 2014 using birth records data from the National Center for Health Statistics.
President Joe Biden on his first day in office sent Congress an
extensive immigration proposal that could have big implications
for California, which is home to the largest undocumented
immigrant population in the nation.
The plan, known as the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021, would
provide a pathway to citizenship to the 11 million unauthorized
immigrants living in the United States. About 2 million of them
live in California.
The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, implemented in 2012, granted a subset of undocumented youth temporary relief from deportation, as well as work authorization and other benefits. In a recent study, we analyzed both whether and how DACA impacted education and employment among undocumented immigrants in California. We found mixed effects. DACA enabled college for some, but discouraged it for others. DACA recipients perceived substantial occupational mobility, but for many, this was not reflected in movement out of the secondary labor market.
In a stinging blow to the Trump administration, Thursday’s
Supreme Court decision found the administration’s attempt to
terminate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program,
known as DACA, was “arbitrary and capricious.”
Conditions of confinement in immigrant detention facilities make them a ticking time bomb for COVID-19 infections. The health risks are dire and urgent, but federal and state governments can still take legal action to prevent infections, flatten the curve, and save lives.
Caitlin Patler, an assistant professor of sociology, whose
research focuses on migration, inequality and
“crimmigration,” recently received the Pacific Sociological
Association’s Distinguished Contribution to Sociological
Perspectives Award.
The award recognized “To Reveal or Conceal: How Diverse
Undocumented Youth Navigate Legal Status Disclosure,” the paper
she published in the association’s journal last year.
Young, undocumented Latino immigrants face many challenges in the United States. Undocumented Latino youth are less likely to graduate from high school and attend college than native-born youth and are more likely to live in poverty and report clinical levels of depression. Our research examines the impact of changes in legal status related to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program on Latino immigrant young adults in California, with a focus on distress and psychological wellbeing.
Caitlin Patler, a CPR Faculty Affiliate in Sociology has been
selected as a National Academy of Education Spencer Fellow for
2018. The fellowships provide funding and professional
development to early-career researchers whose projects address
critical issues in the history, theory, or practice of formal or
informal education, at the national and international levels.
The Academy believes the fellowships enhance the future of
education research by developing new talent in the many
disciplines represented by the scholars selected.
Exclusionary immigration policies have led to a sizeable
undocumented population that is largely barred from access to
resources in the United States, however there is little research
that looks at the impact of legal status on immigrants’
psychological wellbeing.
