I am currently an Assistant Professor of History at the College of William & Mary, in Williamsburg, Virginia, where I teach courses on immigration, borders, and policing. I was an ACLS Fellow for the 2022-2023 academic year. I received my Ph.D. in U.S. history from Columbia University, where my dissertation received the Allan Nevins Prize from the Society of American Historians and the Outstanding Dissertation Award from the Immigration & Ethnic History Society.

My first book, The Migrant’s Jail: An American History of Mass Incarceration, is available from Princeton University Press. The Migrant’s Jail has received four book prizes, including the Frederick Jackson Turner Award and the Ellis Hawley Prize from the Organization of American Historians. It has been featured in publications including the New Yorker, El País, and The Marshall Project.

I became a historian of immigration after years of witnessing the politics and protests around the Krome Service Processing Center, an immigration detention site in my home community of South Florida. Though my current project looks at cases of migrant incarceration from coast to coast, I remain committed to incorporating as much Florida history as possible.

I’d love to hear from you! You can reach me at blnofil@wm.edu.