He earned his Ph.D. in the department of sociology at the University of California. His research focuses on the ways in which legal and educational institutions shape the everyday experiences and the transitions to adulthood of poor, minority, and immigrant youth. Current projects include a four and a half year study of undocumented immigrant young adults in Los Angeles, a companion study in Seattle, and comparative projects on immigrant youth in the U.S. and Europe. Gonzales is the author of When Do Papers Matter? An Institutional Analysis of Undocumented Life in the United States (forthcoming), Young Lives on Hold: The College Dreams of Undocumented Students and Why Integration Matters: Undocumented Immigrant Youth and Making a Case for Moving Beyond Enforcement [1] and his work appears in numerous publications.