Criminalizing Migration

Abstract

Beginning in the 1980s, the United States embarked on a decades-long restructuring of federal laws criminalizing migration and increasing the consequences for migrants engaging in criminal activity. Today, the results are clear: a law enforcement apparatus and immigration prison system propelled by a vast infrastructure of laws and policies. The presidency of Donald Trump augmented this trend and brought it to public attention. But lost in President Trump's unique flair is an ideological commitment shared by multiple presidential administrations and legislators from both major political parties to use the criminal justice system and imprisonment to sift migrants. Examining these ideological attachments reveals Trump-era policies to be the outer edge of decades-long trends rather than extreme and momentary deviations from the norm.

Multidirectional carework across borders: Latina immigrant women negotiating motherhood and daughterhood

“…These ethnographic studies were undertaken during the Trump administration when intensified nativism and increased anti-immigrant sentiment were common across the United States. While these were not new constraints for many women, who contended with restrictive policies prior to the Trump era, this especially xenophobic administration highlighted the context of exclusion in the United States, where border policies make it difficult for mothers to travel home to provide in-person care to their mothers and children in their nations of origin (Abrego, 2014;Hern andez, 2021).The tightening and militarization of the border is coupled with increasingly restrictive policies within the United States, denying mothers access to resources to help themselves and protect their children from the harm of deportability (Abrego & Menjívar, 2011;Dreby, 2012;García, 2017). This is not to say that all contexts are equally exclusionary; our research is situated within relatively inclusionary state and local environments.…”

“…Policies such as the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) made it increasingly difficult for immigrant families to access basic resources or secure authorized status, while also laying the foundation for increased deportations. Simultaneously, the United States–Mexico border became a highly militarized zone, making unauthorized crossings more dangerous (Hernández, 2021). The impact of these restrictive policies coupled with stringent enforcement practices at the border and in the interior contribute to the production of illegality, a social construction that attempts to marginalize and exert control over immigrants, regardless of actual immigration status (DeGenova, 2002).…”

“…Since the late 20th century, the United States has become an increasingly exclusionary context of reception for immigrant mothers (Hern andez, 2021). Policies such as the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) made it increasingly difficult for immigrant families to access basic resources or secure authorized status, while also laying the foundation for increased deportations.…”

“Por trocha”: Circumventing the Episodical Criminalization of Migration in the Andes

“…Over the past three decades, Global North countries, especially the u.S. and the European union, have organized, sustained, and externalized criminalizing mechanisms to deter and control migration coming primarily from Latin American, Africa, and Asia (Atak and Simeon 2018;García Hernández 2021;Mountz 2020). Based on criminal law, penalties have been imposed on forced migrants, including refugees, for entering or staying in a country in an irregularized manner, using false documents, or engaging in unauthorized employment (De Genova 2002;Moffette 2021;Walia, Kelley, and Estes 2021).…”

Private Immigration Detention without the Immigrants: The Subtle Use of Controlling Images in the Contemporary Era

“…This trend towards the criminalization of immigrants continued to increase after 9/11, where the “war on terror” enabled the further prosecution of migrants (Stumpf, 2006). Indeed, immigration enforcement took a decidedly punitive shift where efforts now targeted U.S.-Mexico border towns in an attempt to curb entrance, terrorism, weapons, and violence (Macias-Rojas, 2016; Hernández, 2021). The “war on terror” also prompted a substantial increase in the interior enforcement of migration, where migrants are the target of enforcement efforts from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency (Armenta, 2017).…”