About

I come from a family of educators in the Philippines and have always valued global education for its role in fostering cultural and historical awareness. I earned my Ph.D. in Criminal Justice from Sam Houston State University, an LL.M. in International and Economic Business Law from Kyushu University in Japan, and both my B.A. in Political Science and J.D. from the University of the Philippines College of Law, where I was a member of the Order of the Purple Feather honor society. I am licensed to practice law in both California and the Philippines and gained international legal experience through internships at Japanese law firms in Fukuoka and Osaka. My LL.M. studies were funded by the highly competitive Monbukagakusho scholarship from the Japanese government, which supports emerging leaders in Southeast Asia. I am also a member of Phi Kappa Phi and Pi Gamma Mu honor societies.

As an Asian-American and immigrant from the Philippines, my research focuses on immigration, racialized social control, and legal inequities in criminal justice policy and practice. I have examined racial justice issues in immigration law, refugee resettlement, and the processing of unaccompanied minors in U.S. immigration enforcement. My work also explores legal inequities in corrections, financial crime—including cryptocurrency crime, insider trading, and Ponzi schemes—and intersections between criminal law and economic policy. I have published in peer-reviewed journals such as Deviant Behavior, Law & Society, Journal of Refugee Studies, and Journal of Criminal Justice, as well as law reviews like the American Journal of Criminal Law and Criminal Law Bulletin. My book, Benched Justice: How Judges Decide Asylum Claims and Asylum Rights of Unaccompanied Minors (2023), co-authored with Dr. Daniel Braaten, analyzes judicial decision-making in asylum proceedings involving unaccompanied minors in U.S. immigration courts.