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Colleen Putzel-Kavanaugh
Experts & Staff
Photo of Colleen Putzel-Kavanaugh

Colleen Putzel-Kavanaugh

Associate Policy Analyst

[email protected]
202-266-1944

  | @colleenputzlkav

Colleen Putzel-Kavanaugh is an Associate Policy Analyst with MPI's U.S. Immigration Policy Program, where she focuses on the U.S.-Mexico border, including analysis of trends in border arrivals, migration at and between ports of entry, migrant processing, and the role of NGOs in border communities.

She comes to MPI after three years in San Diego, conducting research and working with asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Previously, Ms. Putzel-Kavanaugh interned with the Bipartisan Policy Center, the office of San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria, and Al Otro Lado. Prior to her work as a researcher, she was a 7th and 8th grade teacher.

Ms. Putzel-Kavanaugh holds a bachelor’s degree in English literature from Assumption College and a master’s of peace and justice degree from the University of San Diego’s Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies, where she focused on human rights, immigration, and corruption.

 
 
 

Bio Page Tabs

President Joe Biden in Mexico City.
Policy Beat
March 27, 2024
The Limits of the Go-It-Alone Approach: U.S. Migration Management Increasingly Requires Other Countries’ Cooperation

The U.S. immigration enforcement system increasingly depends on other countries to help halt irregular movements through the Americas and accept the return of unauthorized migrants. Foreign governments play a crucial and yet underappreciated role in migration management, and can either aid or frustrate U.S. border-control aims, as this article explores.

President Joe Biden signs an executive order.
Policy Beat
January 19, 2024
Biden at the Three-Year Mark: The Most Active Immigration Presidency Yet Is Mired in Border Crisis Narrative

In three years, President Joe Biden has surpassed the number of immigration-focused executive actions taken by the Trump administration throughout its entire four-year term, making his the most active U.S. presidency ever on immigration. Yet the Biden administration has been repeatedly accused of inaction at the U.S.-Mexico border, where record levels of migrant encounters have occurred. This article reviews the Biden track record on immigration.

The U.S. Coast Guard interdicts a vessel with Cuban migrants.
Policy Beat
October 25, 2023
Can the Biden Immigration Playbook Be Effective for Managing Arrivals via Sea?

Amid the highest Caribbean maritime migration levels in a generation, the Biden administration is relying on a carrot-and-stick strategy it honed amid record unauthorized migration at the U.S.-Mexico border. The approach, combining limits on asylum, expanded legal pathways, and international enforcement partnerships, could be increasingly important if maritime migration rises, as this article explains.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams meeting with asylum seekers.
Policy Beat
September 27, 2023
New York and Other U.S. Cities Struggle with High Costs of Migrant Arrivals

U.S. cities have spent billions of dollars to provide shelter, health care, and other resources to migrants recently arrived from the U.S.-Mexico border. The exceptional costs, which the New York mayor has described as existential, are due to a unique combination of factors, this article explains, including the large numbers of migrants arriving without local connections and long waits for work permits.

CBP personnel process and screen migrants for possible entry into the U.S.
Commentaries
October 2023
Shifting Patterns and Policies Reshape Migration to U.S.-Mexico Border in Major Ways in 2023
By  Colleen Putzel-Kavanaugh and Ariel G. Ruiz Soto
Photo of CBP One App poster at shelter in Reynosa, Mexico
Commentaries
April 2023
A Post-Title 42 Vision for Migration Management Comes into Focus
By  Doris Meissner, Ariel G. Ruiz Soto and Colleen Putzel-Kavanaugh

Recent Activity

Expert Q&A, Audio
April 24, 2023

A Complex Picture: Diversifying Migration Flows & Policies at the U.S.-Mexico Border

How are U.S. border operations and policies evolving at the U.S.-Mexico border to address rising and diversifying flows? And what is driving increasing immigration from across Latin America, the Caribbean, and beyond? MPI President Andrew Selee speaks with two colleagues who traveled from one end of the nearly 2,000-mile boundary to the other, touring U.S. Customs and Border Protection facilities and interviewing U.S. and Mexican officials, NGO leaders, and others.

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