José Ángel Navejas is the author of Illegal: Reflections of an Undocumented Immigrant. He has also published Palabras migrantes: 10 ensayistas mexican@s de Chicago (ed. 2018), Invierno: Playlist desde Chicago (2019) and Un mojado en Chicago y cuatro discursos inaugurales (2021). In 2020, he received a PhD in Hispanic Studies from the University of Illinois at Chicago, making him the first undocumented (not DACAmented) immigrant to receive a doctoral degree from a public American university.