Experts in the News

The recent onset of severe winter storms has recalled the mental health trauma caused by past crises, such as 2021’s Winter Storm Uri. “It’s not just one stressor,” Rice faculty scholar Luz Garcini told Texas Tribune, “but everything that surrounds it.”:

“The anti-immigrant rhetoric needs to stop. It has done so much damage to these communities. They have been portrayed as a burden to the system, as a threat to society ... You can imagine what that does to a person,” said Baker Institute Rice Faculty Scholar Luz Garcini.

"Vaccine providers must be accessible to immigrant communities in order to gain their trust and include them in immunization efforts," said Baker Institute Faculty Scholar Luz Garcini. "We cannot underestimate the big, big role that faith-based communities have."

Luz Maria Garcini, nonresident scholar for the Center for the United States and Mexico, talked to Oprah Winfrey about the border wall in a new Apple TV+ series. "It’s a reality and it’s something we need to talk about, because it’s not going away,” Garcini said.