Inés Valdez’s research focuses on immigration, democratic theory, and Latina/o political thought. Her book manuscript Deporting Political Judgment: Hierarchy, Sovereignty, and the Politics of Immigration, considers the limits that sovereignty and a hierarchical international sphere impose on the political judgment of immigrant-receiving polities. It also considers the role of immigrants’ political action in contesting the situations of domination that emerge from the existing power structures and expanding judgment. Her arguments rely on a novel interpretation of four dimensions Kant's political writings: cosmopolitanism, complementarity between spheres, judgment, and provisional politics.

Other single and co-authored projects include a biopolitical approach to understanding immigration enforcement, race and feminist critiques of French Republicanism, American political development, and the politics of representation of Latina/o migration.

During the 2011-2012 academic year she was a Max Weber Postdoctoral Fellow at the European University Institute.