Philip Kretsedemas is Managing Director of Research Evaluation and Data Analytics.  Before joining the Acacia Center for Justice, he served as Professor of Sociology at UMass-Boston with a specialization in the critical analysis of immigration enforcement and the rights of migrants and asylum seekers. Some of these publications include the co-edited book Keeping Out the Other (Columbia University Press, 2008), “Immigration Enforcement and the Complication of National Sovereignty” (American Quarterly, 2008), “The Limits of Control” (International Migration, 2012), “The Controlled Expansion of Local Immigration Laws” (a book chapter in Immigration Policy in the Age of Punishment, Columbia University Press, 2018) and Black Interdictions (Lexington Press, 2022).  Prior to his career at UMass-Boston, Phil served as policy and development director for the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild which, at the time (in the early, post 9/11 era) was a leading source of technical assistance for immigration lawyers on the immigration consequences of criminal convictions and U-visa relief for immigrant survivors of domestic violence.  Phil also served as a policy and communications associate for Catalyst Miami which was a hub for research and advocacy on the impact of the Clinton-era immigration and welfare reform laws for immigrants in the South Florida area. His dissertation research (supported by an SSRC Ford Foundation fellowship) was focused on examining the impact of economic, structural adjustment policies for working poor populations in Jamaica. He received his Ph.D in Sociology from the University of Minnesota in 1997.