Deconstructing Crimmigration

The Crimmigratory Agenda: Historical, Economic, and Political Dimensions of the Criminalization of Immigration in the United States

“…Membership within the nation's citizenry entitles individuals to rights and opportunities that are denied to non-citizens and precariously documented migrants (Stumpf, 2006;García Hernández, 2018). The political rhetoric of this era oriented to strengthening the in-group out-group approach, elevating Americans and casting immigrants as "other," which enabled the weakening constitutional and procedural protections for those popularly placed outside the white American identity.…”

“…One example of xenophobic populist rhetoric becoming crimmigratory policy is President Trump's fixation on the southern border between the USA and Mexico. During his campaign, he drew upon outrage at the presumed criminality of incoming migrants, people of color from South and Central America, feeding a "politics of fear" (Demata, 2017;García Hernández, 2018). Once elected, the administration focused extensively on a largely symbolic border wall that minimally addresses the stated concerns about migrant, but appears as a grand gesture to ideological supporters.…”

Current debates on immigration, crime, and penality: An introduction

“…This insightful perspective unveils the actual texture of the crimmigration turn, which leads criminal justice actors to mobilise various legal instruments depending on the specific needs of the corresponding case (Chacón 2015;Aas 2014;Gundhus 2020 There is no consensual description of the crimmigration order, since scholars offer different catalogues of crimmigration measures and policies. However, some legal and penal policy changes are widely mentioned (see Bowling and Westenra 2020;García Hernández 2018;Kubal 2014;Stumpf 2006Stumpf , 2020Wonders 2017). First, the crimmigration turn has criminalised, both in statute and in practice, former immigration law breaches.…”

The jurisdictional games of immigration policing: Barcelona’s fight against unauthorized street vending

“…Since then, we have witnessed a widespread adoption of the concept (and sometimes only the term) by scholars attempting to document similar trends in various US states and cities and in other countries such as Australia, Canada, England and Wales, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, or Spain. While the use of the concept varies, scholars typically mobilize it as “a conceptual framework [to explain how and why] the line between criminal law and immigration law ‘has grown indistinct’ such that today ‘immigration law and the criminal justice system are merely nominally separate’” (García Hernández, 2015: 3, citing Stumpf, 2006: 367).…”