RESEARCH
My research agenda focuses broadly on the Latinx immigrant experience. I am currently examining how Latinx immigrants and their children incorporate politically, and how political institutions and the American public respond to their efforts to create a place for themselves in the United States.
PEER-REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS
BOOK
Information Brokers: Political Socialization in Latino Immigrant Families
Roberto F. Carlos (Forthcoming, May 2026)
University of Chicago Press
Information Brokers: Political Socialization in Latino Immigrant Families examines the dynamics of political socialization among Latinos in the United States and explores its implications for political incorporation. While traditional political socialization theories emphasize parents as the primary agents shaping children’s political development, the role of children is often overlooked, with children treated largely as passive recipients of political lessons.
This book challenges that view by demonstrating that children are active participants in their own political learning and, critically, can exert meaningful political influence over their parents. This dynamic is especially pronounced among the children of Latino immigrants, whose parents often rely on them to navigate U.S. institutions, norms, and political information—resources that traditional theories assume are widely and uniformly available.
This dependence obligates children of immigrants to provide information that U.S.-born children are rarely expected to supply, granting them unusual influence over major household decisions. Information Brokers shows that this influence extends to politics: when children teach, advocate, or intervene on behalf of their immigrant parents, they engage in political behavior with significant consequences for both generations.
The book employs a multi-method research design, drawing on six original surveys, survey experiments, and qualitative data collected through time spent with children working to protect their parents from deportation. By centering under-resourced communities, this work advances political socialization theory and calls for a broader rethinking of political learning, incorporation, and inequality. With the Latino population exceeding 64 million and continuing to grow, Information Brokers offers crucial insights for scholars and policymakers seeking to understand democratic participation in the United States.
Roberto F. Carlos (Forthcoming, May 2026)
University of Chicago Press
Information Brokers: Political Socialization in Latino Immigrant Families examines the dynamics of political socialization among Latinos in the United States and explores its implications for political incorporation. While traditional political socialization theories emphasize parents as the primary agents shaping children’s political development, the role of children is often overlooked, with children treated largely as passive recipients of political lessons.
This book challenges that view by demonstrating that children are active participants in their own political learning and, critically, can exert meaningful political influence over their parents. This dynamic is especially pronounced among the children of Latino immigrants, whose parents often rely on them to navigate U.S. institutions, norms, and political information—resources that traditional theories assume are widely and uniformly available.
This dependence obligates children of immigrants to provide information that U.S.-born children are rarely expected to supply, granting them unusual influence over major household decisions. Information Brokers shows that this influence extends to politics: when children teach, advocate, or intervene on behalf of their immigrant parents, they engage in political behavior with significant consequences for both generations.
The book employs a multi-method research design, drawing on six original surveys, survey experiments, and qualitative data collected through time spent with children working to protect their parents from deportation. By centering under-resourced communities, this work advances political socialization theory and calls for a broader rethinking of political learning, incorporation, and inequality. With the Latino population exceeding 64 million and continuing to grow, Information Brokers offers crucial insights for scholars and policymakers seeking to understand democratic participation in the United States.
ARTICLES
When Panethnic Primes Get Trumped: Unpacking Latinx Voter Preferences in the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election
Roberto F. Carlos, Hajer Al-Faham, and Michael Jones-Correa (2025)
Political Behavior
Despite President Trump’s exclusionary rhetoric and policies targeting Latinxs, support for Trump among Latinx voters increased in 2020 relative to 2016. Drawing on a representative survey of Latinxs and a pre-election survey experiment, this article examines which segments of the Latinx electorate supported Trump and whether co-ethnic group-based attacks produced backlash. We find that neither Trump’s rhetoric nor his COVID-19 policies induced defection among existing Trump supporters. Instead, only voters predisposed toward Democrats but ambivalent about Biden punished Trump when exposed to co-ethnic harms. These findings suggest that the political effects of group-based attacks among Latinxs may be weakening over time.
Roberto F. Carlos, Hajer Al-Faham, and Michael Jones-Correa (2025)
Political Behavior
Despite President Trump’s exclusionary rhetoric and policies targeting Latinxs, support for Trump among Latinx voters increased in 2020 relative to 2016. Drawing on a representative survey of Latinxs and a pre-election survey experiment, this article examines which segments of the Latinx electorate supported Trump and whether co-ethnic group-based attacks produced backlash. We find that neither Trump’s rhetoric nor his COVID-19 policies induced defection among existing Trump supporters. Instead, only voters predisposed toward Democrats but ambivalent about Biden punished Trump when exposed to co-ethnic harms. These findings suggest that the political effects of group-based attacks among Latinxs may be weakening over time.
How the Trump Administration’s Quota Policy Transformed Immigration Judging
Elise Blasingame, Christina L. Boyd, Roberto F. Carlos, and Joe Ornstein (2024)
American Political Science Review
The Trump administration’s 2018 performance quota policy for immigration judges marked an unprecedented attempt to politically control the immigration judiciary. Using hundreds of thousands of judicial decisions before and after implementation, this article demonstrates that the quota policy substantially increased immigration removal orders. Behavioral change was strongest among judges least inclined to order removals prior to the policy. These findings raise serious concerns about judicial independence, due process protections for noncitizens, and executive influence over federal adjudication.
Awards:
APSA Law and Courts Section – Best Conference Paper (2023)
Evan Ringquist Award – Best Paper on Political Institutions, MPSA (2023)
Elise Blasingame, Christina L. Boyd, Roberto F. Carlos, and Joe Ornstein (2024)
American Political Science Review
The Trump administration’s 2018 performance quota policy for immigration judges marked an unprecedented attempt to politically control the immigration judiciary. Using hundreds of thousands of judicial decisions before and after implementation, this article demonstrates that the quota policy substantially increased immigration removal orders. Behavioral change was strongest among judges least inclined to order removals prior to the policy. These findings raise serious concerns about judicial independence, due process protections for noncitizens, and executive influence over federal adjudication.
Awards:
APSA Law and Courts Section – Best Conference Paper (2023)
Evan Ringquist Award – Best Paper on Political Institutions, MPSA (2023)
Congressional Constraint? Reviewing In Absentia Immigration Removal Orders in the Federal Circuit Courts
Christina L. Boyd, Roberto F. Carlos, Margaret H. Taylor, Matthew Baker, and Elise Blasingame (2023)
Political Research Quarterly
This article examines how federal circuit court judges review in absentia immigration removal orders under statutory constraints designed to limit judicial discretion. Using an original dataset of appellate cases from 2001–2020, we show that pro-immigrant outcomes are rare, as Congress intended. Nevertheless, judicial policy preferences predict variation in how judges interpret statutory factors related to notice and exceptional circumstances, revealing subtle forms of discretion even in highly constrained legal environments.
Christina L. Boyd, Roberto F. Carlos, Margaret H. Taylor, Matthew Baker, and Elise Blasingame (2023)
Political Research Quarterly
This article examines how federal circuit court judges review in absentia immigration removal orders under statutory constraints designed to limit judicial discretion. Using an original dataset of appellate cases from 2001–2020, we show that pro-immigrant outcomes are rare, as Congress intended. Nevertheless, judicial policy preferences predict variation in how judges interpret statutory factors related to notice and exceptional circumstances, revealing subtle forms of discretion even in highly constrained legal environments.
Tolerance for the Free Speech of Outgroup Partisans
Roberto F. Carlos, Geoffrey Sheagley, and Karlee Taylor (2022)
PS: Political Science & Politics
Across multiple studies, we examine partisan tolerance for free speech under varying tradeoffs. We find that support for free speech is generally high in the absence of costs, that Republicans express greater support than Democrats, and that introducing tradeoffs reduces support similarly across parties. Importantly, tolerance does not depend on whether partisan in-groups or out-groups engage in the speech.
Roberto F. Carlos, Geoffrey Sheagley, and Karlee Taylor (2022)
PS: Political Science & Politics
Across multiple studies, we examine partisan tolerance for free speech under varying tradeoffs. We find that support for free speech is generally high in the absence of costs, that Republicans express greater support than Democrats, and that introducing tradeoffs reduces support similarly across parties. Importantly, tolerance does not depend on whether partisan in-groups or out-groups engage in the speech.
Politics of the Mundane
Roberto F. Carlos (2021)
American Political Science Review
This article offers a novel explanation for political participation in immigrant communities by focusing on mundane household responsibilities. Using three datasets—including a ten-year longitudinal study—I show that children of Latinx immigrants who take on adult responsibilities acquire noncognitive skills that lower the costs of political participation. These experiences foster higher levels of political activity, challenging dominant explanations of generational political inequality.
Roberto F. Carlos (2021)
American Political Science Review
This article offers a novel explanation for political participation in immigrant communities by focusing on mundane household responsibilities. Using three datasets—including a ten-year longitudinal study—I show that children of Latinx immigrants who take on adult responsibilities acquire noncognitive skills that lower the costs of political participation. These experiences foster higher levels of political activity, challenging dominant explanations of generational political inequality.
The Effects of Judge Race and Sex on Pretrial Detention Decisions
Ethan Boldt, Christina L. Boyd, Roberto F. Carlos, and Matthew Baker (2021)
Justice System Journal
Using pretrial detention data from 22 federal district courts (2003–2013), this article examines how judge and defendant race and sex shape bail outcomes. We find meaningful disparities, including greater leniency by Black judges toward white defendants and gender-conditioned differences in detention decisions. These results underscore the role of judicial identity in early stages of the criminal legal process.
Ethan Boldt, Christina L. Boyd, Roberto F. Carlos, and Matthew Baker (2021)
Justice System Journal
Using pretrial detention data from 22 federal district courts (2003–2013), this article examines how judge and defendant race and sex shape bail outcomes. We find meaningful disparities, including greater leniency by Black judges toward white defendants and gender-conditioned differences in detention decisions. These results underscore the role of judicial identity in early stages of the criminal legal process.
Late to the Party: On the Prolonged Partisan Socialization Process of Second-Generation Americans
Roberto F. Carlos (2018)
Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics
This article introduces the concept of a “prolonged partisan socialization process” among second-generation Americans. In the absence of parental partisan transmission, many second-generation Latinos and Asians develop partisan identities later in life and outside the household. While this delays partisan maturity, it does not imply long-term disengagement, challenging traditional models of partisan attainment.
Roberto F. Carlos (2018)
Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics
This article introduces the concept of a “prolonged partisan socialization process” among second-generation Americans. In the absence of parental partisan transmission, many second-generation Latinos and Asians develop partisan identities later in life and outside the household. While this delays partisan maturity, it does not imply long-term disengagement, challenging traditional models of partisan attainment.
Do Women Representatives Regender Legislative Bureaucracy?
Walter Wilson and Roberto F. Carlos (2014)
Journal of Legislative Studies
This study examines whether women members of Congress act as change agents by hiring and promoting more women staffers. While women representatives are associated with greater female presence among congressional staff overall, this effect does not extend to the most influential staff positions, suggesting limits to individual-level strategies for institutional gender reform.
Walter Wilson and Roberto F. Carlos (2014)
Journal of Legislative Studies
This study examines whether women members of Congress act as change agents by hiring and promoting more women staffers. While women representatives are associated with greater female presence among congressional staff overall, this effect does not extend to the most influential staff positions, suggesting limits to individual-level strategies for institutional gender reform.
