Ming Hsu Chen

Associate Professor of Law
Courtesy Appointment in Political Science
Ethnic Studies Faculty Affiliate
Faculty-Director, Immigration and Citizenship Law Program

Wolf Law Building
401 UCB
Office 452
Boulder, CO  80309-0401
Office: 452
Phone: (303) 492-8398
E-mail: ming.h.chen@colorado.edu

Curriculum Vitae:  View (PDF format)

Personal Link:

www.minghsuchen.com

Educational Background:
Ph.D   University of California, Berkeley   2011  
J.D.   New York University School of Law   2004  
A.B.   Harvard University   2000  
Bio:
Ming Hsu Chen is an Associate Professor at the University of Colorado in Boulder Law School and Faculty-Director of the Immigration and Citizenship Law Program. She holds faculty affiliations in Political Science and Ethnic Studies. Professor Chen brings an interdisciplinary perspective to the study of immigration, civil rights, and the administrative state.

Professor Chen sits on the Colorado Advisory Council to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. She serves as Co-Editor for the Immigration Prof blog (@immprof), and she can be found on twitter (@minghsuchen). Her research has been featured in Axios, BBC The World, CBS, CNBC, Colorado Public Radio, The Conversation, Denver Post, Salon, Time Magazine, and The Washington Post. Her book, Pursuing Citizenship in the Enforcement Era (Stanford University Press 2020), was featured at TedxMileHigh in December 2020.

Prior to joining the legal academy, Professor Chen clerked for the Honorable James R. Browning on the U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit in San Francisco. She also worked for the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium, and the Brookings Institution. She earned degrees from the University of California Berkeley (Ph.D 2011), New York University Law School (JD 2004), and Harvard College (AB 2000).

Published Books

Pursuing Citizenship in the Enforcement Era, (Stanford Press, forthcoming 2020).
Sacred Places, Civic Purposes: Should Government Help Faith-Based Charity?, (Brookings Institution Press, 2001) (ed. with E.J. Dionne).

Articles

Citizenship Denied: Implications of the Naturalization Backlog for Noncitizens in the Military, 97 Denv L Rev 669 (2020).
Silence and the Second Wall, 27 Southern California Interdisciplinary Law Journal (2019).
Leveraging Social Science Expertise in Immigration Policymaking, 112 NWULR Online 281 (2018).
Sanctuary Networks and Integrative Enforcement, 75 Washington & Lee Law Review 1361 (2018).
Administrator-In-Chief: President and Executive Action in Immigration Law, 69 Administrative Law Review 347 (2017).
Beyond Legality: The Legitimacy of Executive Action in Immigration Law, 66 Syracuse L. Rev. 87 (2015-2016).
Trust in Immigration Enforcement: State Noncooperation and Sanctuary Cities After Secure Communities, 91 Chicago Kent Law Review 13 (2015).
Immigration and Cooperative Federalism: Toward a Doctrinal Framework, 85 U. Colorado L. Rev. 1087 (2014).
Governing by Guidance: Civil Rights Agencies and the Emergence of Language Rights in Schools and Workplaces, 49 Harv. C.R.-C.L. L. Rev. 201 (2014).
Language Rights as a Legacy of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 67 SMU L Rev 247 (2014).
Reimagining Democratic Inclusion: Asian Americans and the Voting Rights Act (with Taeku Lee), 3 UC Irvine L. Rev. 227 (2013).
Where You Stand Depends on Where You Sit: Immigrant Incorporation in Federal Workplace Agencies, 33 Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law 359 (2012-2013).
Alienated: A Reworking of the Racialization Thesis After September 11, 18 Am. U. J. Gender, Soc. Pol'y & L. 411 (2010).
Deciding Asylum Claims: Preliminary Results, 12 Geo. Pub. Pol'y Rev. 29 (2006).
Two Wrongs Make a Right: Hybrid Claims of Discrimination, 79 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 685 (2004).

Other Publications

Are the Dreamers Safe Now that the Supreme Court Ruled? Not Exactly. Here's What's Still up in the Air, The Washington Post, (June 19, 2020).
How Much Procedure Is Needed for Agencies to Change 'Novel' Regulatory Policies, 71 Hastings Law Journal 1127 (June 2020).
Colorblind Nationalism, Yale J. on Reg.: Notice & Comment (July 13, 2020).
How Can the U.S. Support Immigrants Pursuing Citizenship, Scholar Strategy Network (August 2020).
Citizenship Delays Imperil Voting in 2020 Election, The Conversation (September 2020).
Race Masked in Colorblind Administrative Procedures, The Regulatory Review (November 2, 2020)..
US Citizenship Applications are Backlogged, Prolonging the Wait for Civil and Voting Rights, The Conversation (September 25, 2019).
Citizenship Delayed: Civil Rights and Voting Rights Implications of the Citizenship and Naturalization Backlog, A Report from the Colorado State Advisory to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, September 2019 (reprinted in 91 Colorado Law Review Forum 2019).
Immigration Exceptionalism for Nick Parillo's ACUS Report on Guidance, ImmigrationProf Blog (May 7, 2019).
A Worm's Eye View of the Practical Effect of Guidance, 36 Yale J. Reg. Notice & Comment (May 6, 2019).
Is the Census Political or Science?, ImmigrationProf Blog (April 30, 2019).
Supreme Court Oral Argument Discounts Empirical Studies Predicting Census Undercount, ImmigrationProf Blog (April 29, 2019).
Regulatory Rights: Civil Rights Agencies, Courts, and the Entrenchment of Language Rights, in The Rights Revolution Revisited: Institutional Perspectives on the Private Enforcement of Civil Rights in the U.S. (ed. Lynda Dodd, Cambridge University Press 2018).
Administrator-In-Chief in the Trump Era of Immigration Enforcement, Yale J. on Reg.: Notice & Comment (June 21, 2017, updated June 30, 2017).

Selected Press, Media & Publicity

A New Way to Think about American Citizenship | Tedx Talks | Saturday, December 5, 2020
Sept. 8, 2020: Citizenship In The 'Enforcement Era'; Hospitals, Pain, & Cannabis | Colorado Public Radio | Tuesday, September 8, 2020
How International Students Became a White House Target During the Coronavirus Pandemic | CNBC | Thursday, August 20, 2020
Pursuing Citizenship in the Enforcement Era: An Inside Look at the Newest Americans | Colorado Law | Monday, April 13, 2020
Ming Hsu Chen Selected for Campuswide Faculty Fellows Cohort | Colorado Law | Monday, November 25, 2019
Donald Trump Says Some DACA Recipients are 'Very Tough, Hardened Criminals.' That's False | PolitiFact | Thursday, November 14, 2019
Close Quarters | NPR - KUNC's Colorado Edition | Wednesday, September 18, 2019
Citizenship Backlog Prolongs Wait For Immigrants | CBS Denver | Tuesday, September 17, 2019
Want to become a U.S. citizen? Get in line, new report says | The Denver Post | Monday, September 16, 2019
Backlog In Colorado Citizenship Applications Is Hurting Civil Rights, Report Says | Colorado Public Radio | Friday, September 13, 2019

Courses:

Spring 2021 Immigration and Citizenship Law LAWS 7065-801
Fall 2020 Legislation and Regulation LAWS 5205-802
Spring 2020 Administrative Law LAWS 7205-801
Spring 2020 Seminar: Citizenship and Equality LAWS 8565-801
Fall 2019 Immigration and Citizenship Law LAWS 7065-801
Fall 2019 Seminar: Citizenship and Equality LAWS 8565-801
Spring 2019 Immigration and Citizenship Law LAWS 7065-801
Fall 2018 Legislation and Regulation LAWS 5205-801
Fall 2018 Seminar: Citizenship and Equality LAWS 8565-801
Fall 2017 Seminar: Citizenship and Equality LAWS 8565-801
Spring 2017 Immigration and Citizenship Law LAWS 7065-001
Spring 2017 Seminar: Citizenship and Equality LAWS 8565-801
Fall 2016 Administrative Law LAWS 7205-001
Spring 2016 Immigration and Citizenship Law LAWS 7065-001
Spring 2016 Seminar: Citizenship and Equality LAWS 8565-801
Fall 2015 Legislation and Regulation LAWS 5205-803
Fall 2015 Seminar: Citizenship and Equality LAWS 8565-001
Fall 2014 Legislation and Regulation LAWS 5205-802
Fall 2014 Seminar: Citizenship and Equality LAWS 8565-001
Spring 2014 Immigration Law and Immigrants' Rights LAWS 7615-001
Spring 2014 Seminar: Law and Politics Colloquium: Race in America LAWS 8645-001
Fall 2013 Legislation and Regulation LAWS 5205-802
Fall 2012 Legislation and Regulation LAWS 5205-803
Fall 2012 Seminar: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Law and Social Change LAWS 8505-001