Diego Paz

Diego is an undergraduate student in Pauli Murray College pursuing his B.A. in Political Science and Ethnicity, Race, and Migration with a Human Rights certificate through the Jackson School of Global Affairs. He is the son of immigrants and was raised along the U.S.-Mexico borderlands of California where he commuted daily from Tijuana, México to San Diego to attend school. 

Diego’s scholarly interests lie at the intersection of critical border studies, comparative immigration policy, and international security politics. He examines the transnational mobility of people, attending to human rights violations at the U.S. southern border, southern port of Spain, and Spanish North Africa. Diego has studied abroad in Barcelona for Spanish language and culture and will study at the University of Oxford in Spring 2026 for political sociology and security and conflict. 

He’s an organizer for Mecha de Yale, archivist for Unidad Latina en Acción (ULA), legal advocacy intern for Elena’s Light, and community partner for Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services (IRIS). He is working on a project with the University Network for Human Rights on forced disappearances in Mexico. He is a Liman Fellow and previously worked at the Office of the Federal Public Defender for the District of Connecticut and is currently working as an assistant for the Arthur Liman Center for Public Interest Law at Yale Law School. At Yale, Diego is involved in the Yale College Council, creates content as a social media ambassador for the Yale Office of Public Affairs and Communications, supports first-years as a Peer Liaison for the Yale LGBTQ Center, guides visitors around campus as a Yale tour guide, and co-headed the Camp Yale program Cultural Connections.

Areas of research and geographical interest:

Critical Border Studies, Border Militarization, Comparative Immigration Policy, International Security Politics, U.S.-Mexico Border, Spanish North Africa, Spain, Fortress America, Fortress Europe,  Crimmigration, Nativism, Necropolitics, Latinx Studies, Human Rights, Illiberalism, Political Sociology, Postcolonial Theory, Cultural Studies, Literary Critique, Transnational Mobilities