Dr. Amada Armenta’s 2017 book Protect, Serve, and Deport: The Rise of Policing as Immigration Enforcement was timely then and, unfortunately, is even more so now. The UCLA associate professor and faculty director of the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute (LPPI) provided a scholarly lens for attendees of the 2026 AVANCE Global conference at the Bellagio in Las Vegas.
Armenta’s perspective is essential. The professor says that, historically, research on Latino communities has not been led by Latino communities. People like Armenta provide a lived-experience perspective and a passion for sharing data and telling stories about their communities, something researchers with more social distance are not able to do.
“We also do research that is meant not just for academic advancement, but to bridge worlds,” the professor says. “We share research with policymakers, nonprofit organizations, or community-based organizations that want to use it for advocacy, and business communities that may not have time to read academic studies. We do research translation that really illustrates why data is so important.”
As a young person, Armenta was a political junkie, canvassing for campaigns and telling those around her that she wanted to become president. After interning in Washington, DC, she quickly realized that politics was not the lens through which she wanted to view the world. She wanted to be the expert those in politics turned to for help understanding complex issues.
Armenta’s directness is her superpower. No one leaves a conversation with her confused about what she means.
“I think I’m really direct,” Armenta says. “It’s unusual for researchers to be able to distill information in an understandable way, and it’s something I feel really passionate about.”
At a conference centered on economic empowerment, representation, and unity, it’s imperative to hear from those doing scholarly work on issues like immigration that negatively impact so many Latinos. Armenta says the world is in great need of reputable information produced by smart and passionate people.
“Because data doesn’t speak for itself,” the researcher says. “We need to help craft the story to make our data have power.”
Armenta is stretched so thin at the moment that she’s weighing whether she’s ready for the time it takes to write her follow-up book. Could the same information be distributed in more digestible ways while staying true to the storytelling that’s so important to her work? She thinks so, but between high-profile speaking events, ongoing research, and teaching, she needs to find the time to give it some thought.
