NCJ Number
235846
Journal
Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice Volume: 27 Issue: 3 Dated: August 2011 Pages: 261-277
Date Published
August 2011
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This article focuses on policies directed at the exclusion of unauthorized migrants from Mexico and Central America.
Abstract
Contemporary policy responses to unauthorized immigration, the authors argue, reinforce racialized anxieties by (a) focusing attention on physically distinctive and economically marginalized minorities who are defined as the Nation's immigration "threat," (b) creating new spaces of enforcement within which racial anxieties flourish and become institutionalized; and thereby (c) racializing immigrant bodies. The authors examine three Federal enforcement policies: (a) the physical border buildup that began in the 1990s, (b) partnerships with local police, and (c) Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) initiatives to enhance interior enforcement. The result has been the construction of a landscape of institutionalized racial violence embedded in the current immigration regime. (Published Abstract)