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A New Look At Neo-Liberal Economic Policies And The Criminalization Of Undocumented Migration, Teresa A. Miller Nov 2017

A New Look At Neo-Liberal Economic Policies And The Criminalization Of Undocumented Migration, Teresa A. Miller

Teresa A. Miller

This paper situates the current “crisis” surrounding the arrival and continued presence of undocumented immigrants in the United States within penological trends that have taken root in American law over the past thirty years. It positions the shift from more benevolent to the increasingly harsh legal treatment of undocumented immigrants as the continuation of a succession of legal reforms criminalizing immigrants, and governing immigration through crime. By charting the increasing salience of crime in public perceptions of undocumented immigrants, and comparing the immediately preceding criminal stigmatization of so-called “criminal aliens”, this paper exposes current severity toward undocumented immigrants as consistent …


Umd Law Students Travel To Haiti On Fact-Finding Trip, Irene Scharf, Justin Steele Nov 2013

Umd Law Students Travel To Haiti On Fact-Finding Trip, Irene Scharf, Justin Steele

Irene Scharf

During spring break Professor Irene Scharf, director of the Immigration Law Clinic at the UMass School of Law in Dartmouth accompanied a group of UMass law students to the Dominican Republic to engage in fact-finding about the conditions of Haitians in the country. This piece was written by Scharf and Justin Steele, executive articles editor of the UMass Law Review.


Of Coyotes, Cooperation, And Capital: Social Capital And Women’S Migration At The Margins Of The State, Anna O. Oleary Jan 2012

Of Coyotes, Cooperation, And Capital: Social Capital And Women’S Migration At The Margins Of The State, Anna O. Oleary

Anna Ochoa OLeary

Examined here are some of the tenets of social capital in the context of the migrants’ crossing the U.S.-Mexico border without official authorization. Using this context helps identify how social capital development is weakened by the structural and gendered dimensions of migration, contributing to the rise in undocumented border crosser deaths since 1993.


Mujeres En El Cruce: Remapping Border Security Through Migrant Mobility, Anna O. Oleary Jan 2009

Mujeres En El Cruce: Remapping Border Security Through Migrant Mobility, Anna O. Oleary

Anna Ochoa OLeary

In this article I discuss some of the findings of my study of the encounter between female migrants and immigration enforcement authorities along the U.S.-Mexico border. An objective of the research was to ascertain a more accurate picture of women temporarily suspended in the “intersection” of diametrically opposed processes, immigration enforcement and transnational mobility. Of the many issues that have emerged from this research, family separation is most palpable. This suggests a deeply entrenched economic relationship between family separation and measures to better secure the U.S.-Mexico border. Indeed, women’s accounts of crossing into the U.S. without authorization, as one of …


The Abcs Of Unauthorized Border Crossing Costs: Assembling, Bajadores, And Coyotes, Anna O. Oleary Jan 2009

The Abcs Of Unauthorized Border Crossing Costs: Assembling, Bajadores, And Coyotes, Anna O. Oleary

Anna Ochoa OLeary

In efforts to avoid detection by border enforcement agents, undocumented migrants from Latin America often risk life and limb to enter the U.S. Most commonly, they walk two to four days through an inhospitable desert in hopes of being picked up and whisked away to their final destination. Cost in human lives not withstanding, the price of this venture correlates to increased border enforcement. Interviews with repatriated migrant women on the border helps uncover this economic “underbelly” of transnational movement in what I dub the ABCs of migration costs: those related to assembling, bajadores (border bandits), and coyotes.


Close Encounters Of The Deadly Kind: Gender, Migration, And Border (In)Security, Anna O. Oleary Jan 2008

Close Encounters Of The Deadly Kind: Gender, Migration, And Border (In)Security, Anna O. Oleary

Anna Ochoa OLeary

In this article I discuss some of the findings of my study of migrant women temporarily suspended in the “intersection” of diametrically opposed processes: those posed by border enforcement measures and those posed by transnational mobility. A pressing issue that emerged from this research was how close women come to encountering death as they skirt around the border wall to cross without authorization into the U.S. Their testimonies shed light on how the intersection of contradictory processes contributes to a humanitarian crisis on the U.S.-Mexico border in which the likelihood of death is increasingly present.


Border Vigilantism And Comprehensive Immigration Reform, Christopher J. Walker Jan 2007

Border Vigilantism And Comprehensive Immigration Reform, Christopher J. Walker

Christopher J. Walker

While many actors and conditions contribute to the problems at the border, one set of actors has been unexplainably missing from the literature and policy analysis: border vigilantes. These vigilantes have painted the border as a dangerous locus of criminal and terrorist activity, necessitating concerned citizen sentinels. They have blitzed the public with portrayals about the number of migrants crossing the border illegally and the need for law enforcement to increase border protection. Their message is powerful because they back their rhetoric with action: these individuals camp out near popular desert border-crossing points, document the rate of undocumented migration, and …