Doing Change-Oriented Research: Studying the Impacts of Deportation Raids

The United States is home to 47.8 million immigrants, the majority of which have government-sanctioned status in the country. Immigrants make invaluable contributions to society and are owed dignity, just as are all humans. Despite this, immigrants are often exploited, abused, imprisoned, and deported--often through degrading and dehumanizing processes. People are losing protected status and being swept up and imprisoned without warning. This causes severe distress to them, their community, family, and friends. Stories circulate of people staying home or otherwise limiting their mobility for fear of being detained. Constrained mobility has a severe impact of people's quality of life. People miss work, medical appointments, school, extracurriculars, and lack access to food, outdoor space, socialization, church, and other essentials.
 

In this course, students will help conduct a study on the impact of current deportation activities on people's mobility. Students will have the opportunity to learn survey and interview study design, implementation, and analysis. They will have the opportunity to talk with community research partners trusted by immigrants to learn best practices in collecting data in ways that are safe, approachable, and helpful to the people taking part in the study. Most importantly, students will be part of a research team witnessing and documenting the serious impacts experienced by immigrants in the United States in this moment.

 

The class will be offered in Winter Quarter 2026 on Tuesdays from 10-11:50 am at the Feminist Research Institute.

Course: FRS 002-10, CRN 23624, 2 credits Graded 

 

This is part of a broader study on the impacts of aggressive immigration enforcement on people’s lives and how people exercise resistance and autonomy. If you are interested in learning more, please contact Sarah McCullough at [email protected].