Patrisia Macías-Rojas
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781479804665
- eISBN:
- 9781479858422
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479804665.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance
From Deportation to Prison traces the punitive turn in immigration and border policy to the Department of Homeland Security’s Criminal Alien Program (CAP), originally designed to purge noncitizens ...
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From Deportation to Prison traces the punitive turn in immigration and border policy to the Department of Homeland Security’s Criminal Alien Program (CAP), originally designed to purge noncitizens from jails and prisons and ushering in enforcement priorities that process immigrants according to criminal history and risk. Macías-Rojas argues that new enforcement priorities under the Criminal Alien Program, rooted in the post–civil rights era of mass incarceration and prison overcrowding, fundamentally transformed detention and deportation in ways that merged the immigration and criminal justice systems. Deportation and immigrant detention, then, are no longer merely vehicles to purge noncitizens from jails and prisons, as was CAPS’s original mission; they are now the chief mechanisms driving federal criminal prosecution and imprisonment for immigration offenses. From a political analysis of policymaking at the congressional level, Macías-Rojas turns to a street-level ethnographic account of how new enforcement priorities take hold on the Arizona-Mexico border, capturing the ways in which border agents, local law enforcement, activists, border residents, and migrants themselves contend with criminal enforcement priorities that distinguish between rights-bearing “victims” and rightsless “criminals.” Combining history and ethnography, this book shows how, when implemented on the U.S.-Mexico border, the Department of Homeland Security’s criminal enforcement priorities have created an enforcement context that recognizes rights for some undocumented migrants deemed “worthy” of state protection, while aggressively punishing and criminally branding others. In this post–civil rights enforcement context, criminalization goes hand in hand with “humanitarianism” centered on “victims’ rights.”Less
From Deportation to Prison traces the punitive turn in immigration and border policy to the Department of Homeland Security’s Criminal Alien Program (CAP), originally designed to purge noncitizens from jails and prisons and ushering in enforcement priorities that process immigrants according to criminal history and risk. Macías-Rojas argues that new enforcement priorities under the Criminal Alien Program, rooted in the post–civil rights era of mass incarceration and prison overcrowding, fundamentally transformed detention and deportation in ways that merged the immigration and criminal justice systems. Deportation and immigrant detention, then, are no longer merely vehicles to purge noncitizens from jails and prisons, as was CAPS’s original mission; they are now the chief mechanisms driving federal criminal prosecution and imprisonment for immigration offenses. From a political analysis of policymaking at the congressional level, Macías-Rojas turns to a street-level ethnographic account of how new enforcement priorities take hold on the Arizona-Mexico border, capturing the ways in which border agents, local law enforcement, activists, border residents, and migrants themselves contend with criminal enforcement priorities that distinguish between rights-bearing “victims” and rightsless “criminals.” Combining history and ethnography, this book shows how, when implemented on the U.S.-Mexico border, the Department of Homeland Security’s criminal enforcement priorities have created an enforcement context that recognizes rights for some undocumented migrants deemed “worthy” of state protection, while aggressively punishing and criminally branding others. In this post–civil rights enforcement context, criminalization goes hand in hand with “humanitarianism” centered on “victims’ rights.”
Dianne Solís
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520267176
- eISBN:
- 9780520950207
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520267176.003.0004
- Subject:
- Sociology, Migration Studies (including Refugee Studies)
This chapter suggests that it is not easy to answer the question “What Part of ‘Illegal’ Don't You Understand?” Immigration law is increasingly intertwined with criminal law to the point of creating ...
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This chapter suggests that it is not easy to answer the question “What Part of ‘Illegal’ Don't You Understand?” Immigration law is increasingly intertwined with criminal law to the point of creating a new “crimmigration” regime. Due process questions come up frequently as the toughest crackdown in decades touches the lives of illegal immigrants, legal permanent residents, and citizens of the United States. Moreover, the law is full of contradiction. Unauthorized children have a right to a free public education under the Supreme Court decision in Plyer v. Doe but cannot take a job legally when they graduate from high school. Mixed-status families live with both the fruits of citizenship and the risk of deportation. This chapter argues the need to calibrate the legal lens while recognizing that the essence of the writer's craft is finding the humanity in the story. That can mean changing the camera angle frequently through story selection that takes readers inside the lives of police officers, and clinic directors, as well as children with a parent who has been deported.Less
This chapter suggests that it is not easy to answer the question “What Part of ‘Illegal’ Don't You Understand?” Immigration law is increasingly intertwined with criminal law to the point of creating a new “crimmigration” regime. Due process questions come up frequently as the toughest crackdown in decades touches the lives of illegal immigrants, legal permanent residents, and citizens of the United States. Moreover, the law is full of contradiction. Unauthorized children have a right to a free public education under the Supreme Court decision in Plyer v. Doe but cannot take a job legally when they graduate from high school. Mixed-status families live with both the fruits of citizenship and the risk of deportation. This chapter argues the need to calibrate the legal lens while recognizing that the essence of the writer's craft is finding the humanity in the story. That can mean changing the camera angle frequently through story selection that takes readers inside the lives of police officers, and clinic directors, as well as children with a parent who has been deported.
Leah Perry
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781479828777
- eISBN:
- 9781479833108
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479828777.003.0005
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This chapter examines the criminalization of Latin American immigrants and Latina/os in media, policy debates, and law, and in relation to the prison-industrial system. In 1980s films, romanticized ...
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This chapter examines the criminalization of Latin American immigrants and Latina/os in media, policy debates, and law, and in relation to the prison-industrial system. In 1980s films, romanticized Italian American mafia families contrasted media alarm—the continuation of the “immigrant emergency”—over unmarried Latino gangbangers in films and television shows. This was largely accomplished by portraying Latina/o family and gender arrangements as dysfunctional deviations from “family values.” In martial arts films, Asian men were cast as exotic and often family-less crime fighters, again occupying a place between Latin American immigrants and Latinas/os and white ethnics. Focusing on increased border control and punitive immigration law that targeted undocumented immigrants and functioned increasingly like criminal law, as well as on racialized tropes of immigrant criminals in media, this chapter asserts that racially disparate discourses of immigrants and crime produced, justified, and negotiated racist and sexist social relations for neoliberalizing America.Less
This chapter examines the criminalization of Latin American immigrants and Latina/os in media, policy debates, and law, and in relation to the prison-industrial system. In 1980s films, romanticized Italian American mafia families contrasted media alarm—the continuation of the “immigrant emergency”—over unmarried Latino gangbangers in films and television shows. This was largely accomplished by portraying Latina/o family and gender arrangements as dysfunctional deviations from “family values.” In martial arts films, Asian men were cast as exotic and often family-less crime fighters, again occupying a place between Latin American immigrants and Latinas/os and white ethnics. Focusing on increased border control and punitive immigration law that targeted undocumented immigrants and functioned increasingly like criminal law, as well as on racialized tropes of immigrant criminals in media, this chapter asserts that racially disparate discourses of immigrants and crime produced, justified, and negotiated racist and sexist social relations for neoliberalizing America.
Marjorie S. Zatz and Nancy Rodriguez
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780520283053
- eISBN:
- 9780520958890
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520283053.003.0006
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
This chapter provides an overview of key findings, highlighting the policies and practices that exacerbate and reduce harm to unaccompanied minors, Dreamers who came to the United States as young ...
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This chapter provides an overview of key findings, highlighting the policies and practices that exacerbate and reduce harm to unaccompanied minors, Dreamers who came to the United States as young children, U.S. citizen children in mixed-status families, and undocumented parents. We suggest ways in which our work informs related literatures on crimmigration, race and mass incarceration, and transnational family formation. We conclude with a series of recommendations for policymakers that we believe, based on our findings, will contribute to sounder immigration policy and practice. Primary among these is comprehensive immigration reform. In its absence, we suggest a number of mechanisms, including prosecutorial discretion and deferred action, that can help balance the competing goals of public safety and family unification within a context of limited resources. Finally, we urge that future immigration policy and practice explicitly consider the best interests of children.Less
This chapter provides an overview of key findings, highlighting the policies and practices that exacerbate and reduce harm to unaccompanied minors, Dreamers who came to the United States as young children, U.S. citizen children in mixed-status families, and undocumented parents. We suggest ways in which our work informs related literatures on crimmigration, race and mass incarceration, and transnational family formation. We conclude with a series of recommendations for policymakers that we believe, based on our findings, will contribute to sounder immigration policy and practice. Primary among these is comprehensive immigration reform. In its absence, we suggest a number of mechanisms, including prosecutorial discretion and deferred action, that can help balance the competing goals of public safety and family unification within a context of limited resources. Finally, we urge that future immigration policy and practice explicitly consider the best interests of children.
Patrisia Macías-Rojas
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781479804665
- eISBN:
- 9781479858422
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479804665.003.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance
For many, the punitive turn in immigration stems from the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Although 9/11 linked immigration and national security, this link occurred more in ...
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For many, the punitive turn in immigration stems from the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Although 9/11 linked immigration and national security, this link occurred more in the national imagination than in practice. The day-to-day operations of Border Patrol agents do not involve intercepting terrorists or chemical weapons, nor are border agents apprehending migrants from countries on the “state sponsors of terrorism” or “terrorist safe haven” lists. Despite the rhetorical conflation of immigration with terrorism and national security, what border enforcement looks like in practice is little more than domestic crime control extended to an immigration context. The introductory chapter recounts over a decade of historical and ethnographic research on this new blend of immigration and crime control that began well before the events of September 11.Less
For many, the punitive turn in immigration stems from the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Although 9/11 linked immigration and national security, this link occurred more in the national imagination than in practice. The day-to-day operations of Border Patrol agents do not involve intercepting terrorists or chemical weapons, nor are border agents apprehending migrants from countries on the “state sponsors of terrorism” or “terrorist safe haven” lists. Despite the rhetorical conflation of immigration with terrorism and national security, what border enforcement looks like in practice is little more than domestic crime control extended to an immigration context. The introductory chapter recounts over a decade of historical and ethnographic research on this new blend of immigration and crime control that began well before the events of September 11.
Banks Miller and Brett Curry
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- December 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780190928247
- eISBN:
- 9780190928278
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190928247.003.0008
- Subject:
- Law, Legal Profession and Ethics
This chapter revisits key findings presented throughout the book. The results indicate a clear pattern of executive influence on the work of U.S. Attorneys (USAs). Additional results suggest that ...
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This chapter revisits key findings presented throughout the book. The results indicate a clear pattern of executive influence on the work of U.S. Attorneys (USAs). Additional results suggest that Congress has more influence than previously considered. The models in Chapter 6 show that Booker increased the influence of the President as well as the discretion of federal prosecutors. This naturally leads to questions about how future administrations will attempt to influence USAs and, more directly, how the Trump administration’s focus on narcotics and immigration will alter the priorities of USAs. Beyond this short-term speculation, the final chapter grounds the results in the rich empirical literature on the control of agents, prosecutorial discretion, and the imperial presidency.Less
This chapter revisits key findings presented throughout the book. The results indicate a clear pattern of executive influence on the work of U.S. Attorneys (USAs). Additional results suggest that Congress has more influence than previously considered. The models in Chapter 6 show that Booker increased the influence of the President as well as the discretion of federal prosecutors. This naturally leads to questions about how future administrations will attempt to influence USAs and, more directly, how the Trump administration’s focus on narcotics and immigration will alter the priorities of USAs. Beyond this short-term speculation, the final chapter grounds the results in the rich empirical literature on the control of agents, prosecutorial discretion, and the imperial presidency.
Tanya Golash-Boza
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- March 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198814887
- eISBN:
- 9780191852596
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198814887.003.0015
- Subject:
- Law, Criminal Law and Criminology, Human Rights and Immigration
This chapter considers how biased policing practices, combined with institutional cooperation between immigration and criminal law enforcement agents, influences broader trends in deportation. ...
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This chapter considers how biased policing practices, combined with institutional cooperation between immigration and criminal law enforcement agents, influences broader trends in deportation. Deportation laws in the United States are race- and gender-blind, but their implementation is not. Ninety-four per cent of interior removals involve men, even though women account for 47 per cent of unauthorized immigrants in the United States. And, 88 per cent of interior removals involve people from just four countries: Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, even though nationals from these countries only make up 66.3 per cent of unauthorized migrants. An analysis of how deportations happen that puts together on-the-ground practices of policing with immigration law enforcement cooperation helps us to understand these gendered and racialized patterns of deportation. This chapter draws from interviews with 117 deportees in the Dominican, Republic, Jamaica, and Guatemala in 2009 and 2010.Less
This chapter considers how biased policing practices, combined with institutional cooperation between immigration and criminal law enforcement agents, influences broader trends in deportation. Deportation laws in the United States are race- and gender-blind, but their implementation is not. Ninety-four per cent of interior removals involve men, even though women account for 47 per cent of unauthorized immigrants in the United States. And, 88 per cent of interior removals involve people from just four countries: Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, even though nationals from these countries only make up 66.3 per cent of unauthorized migrants. An analysis of how deportations happen that puts together on-the-ground practices of policing with immigration law enforcement cooperation helps us to understand these gendered and racialized patterns of deportation. This chapter draws from interviews with 117 deportees in the Dominican, Republic, Jamaica, and Guatemala in 2009 and 2010.
