Asad L. Asad

Associate Professor of Sociology

PhD, Harvard University

Asad L. Asad is Associate Professor of Sociology at Stanford University, where he is a faculty affiliate of the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity. Bridging the sociology of immigration, race/ethnicity, law, and health, his research examines how institutional categories relate to social control and inequality. His multi-method work focuses on the U.S. immigration system and its disproportionate effects on Latino citizens and noncitizens. Current research projects examine the effects of immigration enforcement on health, the federal judiciary's role in immigration enforcement, and the capacity of immigrant-serving organizations to transform the U.S. immigration system.

He is the author of the award-winning book Engage and Evade: How Latino Immigrant Families Manage Surveillance in Everyday Life (Princeton University Press, 2023). His articles appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Law & Society Review, International Migration Review, and Social Science & Medicine, among other outlets. His work has been supported by the National Science Foundation and the Russell Sage Foundation.

Asad teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on race, ethnicity, and immigration, as well as an undergraduate course on research design and preparation. He is the recipient of the Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences Dean's Teaching Award, the CCSRE Faculty Recognition Award, and the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellows Faculty Mentor Book Award.

Asad earned his B.A. in Political Science and Spanish Language and Culture from the University of Wisconsin, and his A.M. and Ph.D. in Sociology from Harvard University.

Latest Publications

Journal Articles & Book Chapters

Vargas Nunez, Cesar D., Sakshina Bhatt, Basil F. Seif, Fernando S. Mendoza, David D. Laitin, and Asad L. Asad. 2026. Reconsideration of Secure Communities rollout reveals preemptive local-federal cooperation in immigration enforcement. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 123(15): e2510928123.

Asad, Asad L., Filiz Garip, and Jackelyn Hwang. 2026. “Weather Extremes in Indigenous Communities in Mexico and Undocumented U.S. Migration and Its Duration.” RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 12(4): 102-132

Asad Asad L., and Livia Baer-Bositis. 2025. Spatial and temporal contexts of formal social control and system involvement: U.S. Latinos under immigration policing. Law & Society Review. 59(1):172-208. doi:10.1017/lsr.2024.57

Johnson, Amy L., Christopher Levesque, Neil A. Lewis, Jr., and Asad L. Asad. 2024. “Deportation Threat Predicts Latino U.S. Citizens and Noncitizens’ Psychological Distress, 2011-2018.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 121(9): e2306554121.

Asad, Asad L. 2020. "Latinos’ deportation fears by citizenship and legal status, 2007 to 2018." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 117(16): 8836-8844.

Asad, Asad L. 2020. “On the Radar: System Embeddedness and Latin American Immigrants’ Perceived Risk of Deportation.” Law & Society Review 54(1): 133-167.

Asad, Asad L. 2019. “Deportation Decisions: Judicial Decision-Making in an American Immigration Court.” American Behavioral Scientist 63(9): 1221-1249. DOI: 10.1177/0002764219835267.

Asad, Asad L., and Eva Rosen. 2019. “Hiding within Racial Hierarchies: How Undocumented Immigrants Make Residential Decisions in an American City.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 45(11): 1857-1882. DOI: 10.1080/1369183X.2018.1532787.

Asad, Asad L., and Jackelyn Hwang. 2019. “Indigenous Places and the Making of Undocumented Status in Mexico-U.S. Migration.” International Migration Review 53(4): 1032-1077.

Asad, Asad L., and Filiz Garip. 2019. “Mexico-U.S. Migration in Time: From Economic to Social Mechanisms.” The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 684: 60-84. DOI: 10.1177/0002716219847148.

Asad, Asad L., and Jackelyn Hwang. 2019. “Migration to the United States from Indigenous Communities in Mexico.” The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 684: 120-145. DOI: 10.1177/0002716219848342.

Asad, Asad L., and Jackelyn Hwang. 2018. "Indigenous Places and the Making of Undocumented Status in Mexico-US Migration." International Migration Review. https://doi.org/10.1177/0197918318801059

Asad, Asad L., and Matthew Clair. 2018. "Racialized Legal Status as a Social Determinant of Health." Social Science & Medicine 199: 19-28.