She received a JD from Harvard Law School and a PhD in sociology from Stanford University, where she was a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow. She served as a law clerk to the Honorable M. Margaret McKeown of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and practiced law at the international law firm of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen, and Hamilton. Her current research focuses on immigration law, criminal law, legal noncompliance, and legal attitudes of noncitizens. She has published widely in both leading sociology and law journals, including the American Sociological Review, Social Forces, Law & Social Inquiry, Law & Society Review, UCLA Law Review, and Southern California Law Review. She has been awarded the 2017 Andrew Carnegie Fellowship that will support her empirical work on immigration detention.