UCLA experts: ICE arrests, protests, the death of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis and authoritarianism

Thousands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have been sent by the Trump administration to conduct immigration enforcement in Minnesota. Reports and videos of the government's crackdown in the Twin Cities have stimulated protests and lawsuits against the federal government by city leaders. The Jan. 7 fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good by an ICE agent has been interpreted by some as a clear indication that the government has entered a new phase of authoritarianism. UCLA has experts on UCLA has experts on the legality of ICE tactics and
what ICE agents can and cannot legally do during arrests, and talk of President Trump invoking the Insurrection Act to send military forces into cities to quell the protests.

Arulanantham is professor from practice and co-director of the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at the UCLA School of Law. His expertise includes asylum and the border; immigration detention; and state and local immigration policymaking.

He can comment on U.S. Customs and Border Protection in U.S. cities and the legality and illegality of ICE arrest tactics, as well as individuals' right to remain silent when confronted by immigration officials.

Email: UCLA law media relations, [email protected]

Barreto is a professor of political science and Chicana/o and Central American studies. He is an expert on Latino voting patterns, and more generally how racial and ethnic minorities participate in politics in the United States. He is co-founder of the UCLA Voting Rights Project.

He can comment on ICE immigration enforcement.

Email: [email protected]

Eagly is a law professor and one of the nation's leading experts on the intersection between immigration and criminal law. Her recent scholarship, published in leading journals, explores topics such as access to counsel in U.S. immigration courts, the use of video to remotely adjudicate criminal court proceedings, and the rising reliance on immigrant detention.

She can comment on ICE crackdowns in cities and interaction with local law enforcement agencies.

Email: UCLA law media relations, [email protected]

McBride is a historian of 20th-century Eastern Europe, with a specific focus on the Soviet experience and interethnic violence during war and peacetime. His work focuses on nationalist movements, paramilitary violence and authoritarianism. He is also interested in left and right-wing ideologies and how these ideologies relate to political violence, antisemitism and ethnonationalism.

He can draw on his work centered on the 20th-century experience to speak to questions about state-sponsored violence against Americans (documented or undocumented), nativist ideologies that justify this violence, and support/resistance to this violence by the American populace.

Email: mailto:[email protected]

Menjivar holds the Dorothy L. Meier Chair in Social Equities and is a professor of sociology at UCLA. Her research centers on the effects of immigration law and enforcement practices on immigrants' lives, as well as gender-based violence in Central America.

Menjivar co-edited a double issue of American Behavioral Scientist for which she also co-wrote the introduction, "The Tools of Autocracy Worldwide: Authoritarian Networks, the Façade of Democracy, and Neo-Repression," breaking down how dictators have deftly shepherded societies and political systems into autocracies worldwide.

Email: [email protected]

Schwartz is one of the country's leading experts on police misconduct litigation. She has also examined the justifications for qualified immunity doctrine, the financial impact of settlements and judgments on federal, state and local law enforcement officers and agency budgets and regional variation in civil rights protections across the country.

She can comment on accountability for misconduct by federal immigration agents.

Email: UCLA law media relations, [email protected]

Blair is an associate professor of political science at UCLA, who studies state violence and how to reduce it, such as in policing and immigration law enforcement in the U.S. and in low- and middle-income countries. He is the co-director of the Deportation Data Project, which collects and posts public, anonymized datasets on U.S. government immigration enforcement for use by journalists, academics, advocates and the public. He can comment and provide data related to immigration enforcement, such as arrests, detainer requests and detentions by ICE.

Email: Contact UCLA media relations, [email protected]