Ariel G. Ruiz Soto
Ariel G. Ruiz Soto is a Senior Policy Analyst at MPI, where he works in the U.S. Immigration Policy Program and the Latin America and Caribbean Initiative.
His mixed-methods research examines how governments across the Western Hemisphere design, coordinate, and implement migration policies, as well as how those policies affect foreign- and native-born populations. He also analyzes sociodemographic trends used to estimate the unauthorized immigrant population in the United States, helping to inform evidence-based policy debates.
He writes regularly on immigration enforcement, migrant reception and reintegration, and asylum and refugee policy in the United States, Mexico, and Central America. He is a co-author of On the Move: Migration Policies in Latin America and the Caribbean (Stanford University Press, 2025), which examines how host countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have responded to large-scale and uneven migration flows.
Mr. Ruiz Soto holds a master’s degree from the University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration with a focus on immigration policy and service provision, and a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Whitman College.
Languages: Spanish
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Explore Content by Ariel G. Ruiz Soto
Showing 11-20 of 85 total results
On the Move: Rapidly Evolving Migration Trends and Policies in Latin America and the Caribbean
How has Latin America and the Caribbean responded to the surge in migration in the region? This webinar looked at surprising patterns and related policy questions.
Facing New Migration Realities: U.S.-Mexico Relations and Shared Interests
U.S.-Mexico cooperation reduced unauthorized migration from 2020 to 2024; lasting progress hinges on legal pathways, regional engagement, and border infrastructure.
El lado olvidado de la deportación: El costo de ignorar los retos de reintegración de los retornados
A medida que el gobierno estadounidense busca intensificar las deportaciones, se debe poner mayor enfoque a la recepción y reintegración de los retornados a México y Centroamérica. A pesar de modestos mejoramientos, los programas de recepción y reintegración en estos países han sido en gran medida ineficaces para aliviar las condiciones a largo plazo de los retornados, de hecho, a menudo son las mismas que motivaron su migración original.
The Forgotten Side of Deportation: The Cost of Ignoring Returnees’ Reintegration Challenges
As the U.S. government seeks to ramp up deportations, greater focus should be given to the reception and reintegration of returnees to Mexico and Central America. Despite modest improvements, reception and reintegration programs in these countries have been largely ineffective at improving returnees' long-term conditions—often the same ones that prompted their original migration.
Amid Tariff Threats, Migration Management Is Key to the Evolving Trump-Sheinbaum Relationship
The Trump administration is threatening tariffs on Mexico to achieve migration management aims, as it did in 2019. The landscape is far different in 2025, though. Mexican cooperation is at far higher levels than in 2019 and Mexico is essential to many of the Trump border goals—giving it greater leverage than before. Negotiations that recognize both countries' goals, capacities, and legal frameworks are essential to effective outcomes, this short read argues.
Entre amenazas arancelarias, la gestión de la migración es clave para la evolución de la relación Trump-Sheinbaum
La administración Trump amenaza con imponer aranceles a México para lograr sus objetivos de gestión migratoria, como lo hizo en 2019. Sin embargo, el panorama es muy diferente en 2025. La cooperación mexicana para el control migratorio alcanza niveles mucho más altos que en 2019, lo que le otorga mayor influencia que antes. Este Foco analítico sostiene que las negociaciones que reconozcan los objetivos y las capacidades de ambos países son esenciales para lograr resultados efectivos.
The Unauthorized Immigrant Population Expands amid Record U.S.-Mexico Border Arrivals
The U.S. unauthorized immigrant population stood at 13.7 million as of mid-2023. The result of strong U.S. economic recovery from the pandemic and displacement in Latin America, the increase in the size of the unauthorized population is accompanied by a diversifying makeup in nationalities. As Mexico's share of the overall unauthorized population has declined, the shares from Central and South America, in particular, have increased.
Immigrants and Crime in the United States
A significant and growing body of research at U.S., state, and local levels demonstrates that immigrants commit crimes at lower rates than the U.S.-born population.
With New Strategies At and Beyond the U.S. Border, Migrant Encounters Plunge
Encounters of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border for fiscal 2024 fell to 2.1 million, a 14 percent drop from the prior year as the result of the Biden administration deepening its carrot-and-stick approach alongside increased immigration enforcement throughout the Western Hemisphere, especially from Mexico. September represented the lowest monthly encounters of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border without authorization seen during this administration.
U.S. Legal Pathways for Mexican and Central American Immigrants, by the Numbers
Family ties, H-2 seasonal work visas, and humanitarian parole are the main U.S. legal pathways for Mexican and Central American immigrants.
