Download Sample Slides - Carolina Academic Press

The Criminalization of Immigration:
Contexts and Consequences
Edited by Alissa Ackerman, PhD
&
Rich Furman, MSW, PhD
Teaching material provided by:
Douglas Epps
Copyright © 2014 Carolina Academic Press.
All rights reserved.
Chapter 1
Introduction: The Changing Tide of America and the
Criminalization of Immigration
• Immigration is one of the hottest topics in
discourse.
– key values about what it means to be an “an
American”
– Internet and other mass media has increased visibility
of immigration
• Emotional and value-laden narratives of
immigration
– We are a country that was built by and for immigrants
with each generation of immigrants.
• Influences how US handles immigrants, refugees, and
asylum seekers.
Copyright © 2014 Carolina Academic Press.
All rights reserved.
Chapter 1
Introduction: The Changing Tide of America and the
Criminalization of Immigration
– America is a country for Americans, and is
threatened by a nefarious other: the immigrant
• The immigrant is often viewed as a threat to physical
and moral survival
• September 11th, 2001, has altered our
relationship to “the [immigrant] other.”
– Threatened our senses of security.
– The Internet made this a far more powerful
assault in the minds of Americans.
Copyright © 2014 Carolina Academic Press.
All rights reserved.
Chapter 1
Introduction: The Changing Tide of America and the
Criminalization of Immigration
• 4. Americans were attacked from inside by those
perceived as others—the immigrant.
– Nativist and racist sentiments were inflamed by
President George W. Bush’s
– This "other” had now become the enemy.
• A pacification strategy was needed (Ch. 2)—the
criminalization of immigration
– Rise of nativism in the United States
– The criminalization of immigration reflects an extreme
response to our own fears of our future
Copyright © 2014 Carolina Academic Press.
All rights reserved.
Chapter 1
Introduction: The Changing Tide of America and the
Criminalization of Immigration
• Nativism has led to calls for comprehensive
immigration reform
– The Supreme Court—immigration policy is in the
purview of the federal government
• According to federal law, undocumented immigration is
an administrative violation
• States are passing state laws that criminalize
undocumented immigrant lives
– Dramatic increase in immigration related bills at the state
level over the last several years
Copyright © 2014 Carolina Academic Press.
All rights reserved.
Chapter 2
The Problematization of Immigration as a Pacification Strategy
• Numerous presidential campaigns have focused
on the “problem” of immigration
• These political strategies coincide with the
problematization of immigration—immigration is
utilized in strategic terms.
– National security, terrorism, job creation and loss, the
overall health of the economy, general crime and even
sex crimes.
– Serves a powerful function of attempting to pacify the
American public by using immigration as a strategy of
pacification.
Copyright © 2014 Carolina Academic Press.
All rights reserved.
Chapter 2
The Problematization of Immigration as a Pacification Strategy
Pacification as a Strategy
• Pacification creates a sense of peace and order
• Pacification contains two interrelated approaches:
– construction and reconstructing (or politics and force)
– Means of achieving security rely on a society’s idea of what is insecure
• Security is used as a way of achieving pacification culturally,
economically, politically and socially in three ways:
– restoring security through political and economic force
– deconstruction and reconstruction
– social reconstruction through military and/or police force
• The U.S.-Mexico border has served several purposes for the U.S.
– For most of US history the boundary was only periodically enforced
• In the 1990s immigration became a problem that was widely accepted
Copyright © 2014 Carolina Academic Press.
All rights reserved.
Chapter 2
The Problematization of Immigration as a Pacification Strategy
Undocumented Immigration as a Tool of Pacification
Pacification Mechanism 1—“Threats” of Illegal
Immigrants
– The permanent insecurity is the ability of the “other” to
invade societies occupied by “us.”
– The increased policing of borders separating one
population from another is instigated and achieved by the
country with more capital & more insecurities
– The perceived threats of “illegal” immigrants serves as
responses to economic and social problems.
• Blame the “other” and citizens will not notice structural problems
– Increase in problematization of anti-immigrant sentiments
post 9/11, but some evidence of it exists in the 1990s.
Copyright © 2014 Carolina Academic Press.
All rights reserved.
Chapter 2
The Problematization of Immigration as a Pacification Strategy
Undocumented Immigration as a Tool of Pacification
Pacification Mechanism 2—Criminalizing
Immigration
– Several states have used anti-immigration laws to
addresses citizens’ fears of crimes that may be
committed by undocumented immigrants.
• Alabama’s H.B. 56 law—makes it a felony for an
undocumented immigrant to enter into contracts with the
state.
• Arizona’s S.B. 1070 law—encourages law enforcement to
verify the immigration status of anyone suspected of being
an “illegal.”
• The effect of immigration policy has not only been on
undocumented immigrants and transmigrants, but on
Latinos themselves.
Copyright © 2014 Carolina Academic Press.
All rights reserved.
Chapter 2
The Problematization of Immigration as a Pacification Strategy
Undocumented Immigration as a Tool of Pacification
Pacification Mechanism 3—Immigration Detention
and the Incarcerative Industrial Complex
– The criminalization of immigration further justifies
the building up of the criminal industrial complex.
Copyright © 2014 Carolina Academic Press.
All rights reserved.
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