Biography
Alexandra Villarreal is a doctoral student in the Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies at The University of Texas at Austin. Her research focuses on immigration and asylum policy in the United States, with a particular interest in the definition of asylum. In 2017, she graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude as a Hispanic studies major at Columbia University in New York City. Since then, she has had a front-row seat to the defining moments of the last half-decade as a journalist for The Guardian, The Associated Press, NBC, and other media outlets. Her academic work is directly informed by her reportage during the Trump and Biden administrations.