In 2007, he received his Ph.D. in history from the Ohio State University. His research centers on the political, cultural, and security challenges posed by Mexican migration to the United States. Grants from the Harry S. Truman Library Foundation, the Mershon Center for International Security Studies, and the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR) have supported his research. He has presented his findings at a number of conferences including the SHAFR Annual Meeting; the Ohio Latinamericanist Conference; the Crossing Borders, Spanning Regions: the Movements of People, Goods, and Ideas conference hosted by the Center for International History at Columbia University; and the Envisioning Bracero History Conference at the University of Texas at El Paso.