Racializing Crimmigration

Abstract

Deporting “criminal aliens” has become the highest priority in American immigration enforcement. Today, most deportations are achieved through the “crimmigration” system, a term that describes the convergence of the criminal justice and immigration enforcement systems. Emerging research argues that U.S. immigration enforcement is a “racial project” that subordinates and racializes Latino residents in the United States. This article examines the role of local law enforcement agencies in the racialization process by focusing on the techniques and logics that drive law enforcement practices across two agencies, I argue that local law enforcement agents racialize Latinos by punishing illegality through their daily, and sometimes mundane, practices. Investigatory traffic stops put Latinos at disproportionate risk of arrest and citation, and processing at the local jail subjects unauthorized immigrants to deportation. Although a variety of local actors sustain the deportation system, most do not see themselves as active participants in immigrant removal and they explain their behavior through a colorblind ideology. This colorblind ideology obscures and naturalizes how organizational practices and laws converge to systematically criminalize and punish Latinos in the United States.

Beyond Profiling: The Institutional Sources of Racial Disparities in Policing

“…The police training manuals that we relied on in our book to illustrate this practice drew advice and guidance from police departments of virtually every size in all regions of the country (2014, 22–23). Recent ethnographic studies that follow up on our research observe investigatory stops in many jurisdictions in North Carolina (Coleman and Stuesse ) and in Nashville, Tennessee (Armenta , ). The recent official report on problems in the Chicago police department observes high numbers of investigatory stops, especially of African Americans, in that city (Police Accountability Task Force ).…”

Border Residents’ Perceptions of Crime and Security in El Paso, Texas

“…They argue that three federal responses-building up the border, increased partnerships with police, and increased reliance on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)--have resulted in a racialized language regarding how the U.S. handles immigration. They and many others argue that immigration has been criminalized and that the law has sustained racial inequalities (Armenta 2017, Dowling and Inda 2013, Golash-Boza 2015. As immigrants are more likely to be the victims of crime, rather than the perpetrators, this rhetoric can intensify their vulnerability and provide cover for exploiters and human traffickers (Zatz and Smith 2012).…”

“…President Trump's discourse reproduces racist anti-Mexican rhetoric (Castañeda 2019) and further amplifies and legitimizes the wrongful confounding of migration and crime. This process is what some scholars have termed crimmigration, and results in racial profiling as well as the incarceration of minorities for not being able to obtain immigration papers, rather than committing any crime (Armenta 2017). Trump's announcement of his presidential campaign included the now-infamous statement:…”

Stop-gaps, lip service, and the perceived futility of body-worn police officer cameras in Baltimore City

“…Critical race theory (CRT) establishes the fundamental role that the law and legal institutions play in the maintenance of constructed racial hierarchies (Delgado & Stefancic, 2017). Despite the promise of neutrality and the installation of allegedly color-blind agendas, the criminal legal system has proven particularly debilitating for Black, Latinx, and indigenous lives and the communities from which they originate (Armenta, 2017;Martín & Danner, 2017;Van Cleve & Mayes, 2015). CRT scholarship suggests that the contemporary "Get Tough on Crime" agenda, and all of the legislation upon which it is bolstered, is sustainable only because of the social construction of race and racism.…”