Patler’s research explores citizenship and legal status as axes of stratification that significantly shape opportunities for mobility. She analyzes how immigration status impacts education, employment, and health among immigrants and their families. Her work also explores how immigrants experience and resist exclusion in everyday life, within institutions such as schools, and through detention and deportation policies. She is currently conducting longitudinal mixed-methods research on the impacts of long-term immigration detention and on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.