Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Exploring How Morality Framing And Partisanship Influence Public Perceptions Of Immigration, Gerardo Jesus Flores

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The goal of this thesis research project is to provide a new theoretical outlook that explores and analyzes how morality framing may affect American political preferences and behavior. Partisanship and ideological preferences have long been acknowledged as significant predictors of political behavior in the American electorate. I posit the framing of the key issue of immigration through a moral prism can increase support for presidential proposals and may counteract or even overpower the effects of partisanship. When oneâ??s views on morality and partisanship are at odds with each other on a given issue, I expect respondents who self-identify as morally …

"And Some, I Assume, Are Good People:" A Closer Look At Hispanic Immigration And The Code Of The Street, Nicole Cebak

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Although research shows that increasing neighborhood levels of immigration tend to be associated with lower crime, little attention has been paid to why this is the case-- in essence what variables might help account for, or explain, these findings. Thus, the focus of this study is to explore a cultural explanation, specifically whether adherence to the code of the street helps to explain this relationship. Further, this study is looking to find the differences between immigrant generations as well as recent and established immigrants as it pertains to adherence to the code of the street. Using a random sample of …

Skirting The Law: Women In Vice During U.S. Prohibition In South Texas, 1900-1933, Carolina Monsivais

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This Dissertation explores both women's participation in the vice industry north of the U.S.-Mexico border in South Texas and the ways in which women were policed. The Dissertation analyzes the interactions that occurred between law enforcement agents and the women they arrested, primarily ethnic Mexican women. This analysis illuminates law enforcement tactics that were honed during this era through the interactions that agents had with women who worked in vice industries. I also argue that women in this industry demonstrated knowledge, agency, and resistance. In addition, it created avenues of work for women, particularly in South Texas. However, studies examining …

Emotional Directives Of Legal Status Changes: A Study On Immigration Status Grants, Perla Galindo

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Judicial decision making has provided new frameworks to examine the effects of extra-legal factors. Yet, immigration courts have not received much scholarly attention. This Thesis examines the conditions under which non-citizen applicants likely to receive successful immigration status change. In particular, I analyze the effects of sympathy on the decision making of immigration court judges. Using a convenience sample of the El Paso Area, I evaluate immigrant applications for status changes to identify which factors illicit sympathetic and thus more likely to receive their status change requests. I find that younger applicants and Deferred Action of Childhood Arrivals (DACA) applicants …

The Creation Of The Border Crisis: How The Media Influenced The Situation At The U.S./Mexico Border In 2014, Alejandra Baron

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In 2014, thousands of women and children from Central America trekked across Mexico to reach the United States border in hopes of seeking asylum. As oppose to previous immigration surges, it was the first time that this amount of asylum seekers had reached within a short period of time the border. The media in the United States took an important role in describing the occurrences at the U.S./Mexico border in the rhetoric and dialect used. The polarization of the audience mimicked the partisan government that could not agree on a solution and left the situation at the border in a …

At The Intersection Of Deferred Action For Childhood Arrivals, The Migration Trust Network And Labor, Mario Javier Chavez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This study unpacks the intersection of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the Migration Trust Network and Labor. I use 9 in-depth qualitative interviews to address how such policies are affecting the labor acquisition and labor outcomes of DACA recipients. The Migrant trust network remained important for DACA recipients, although in a more indirect and macro-level way than described in Flores-Yeffal (2013). In particular, DACA recipients relied on the collective efficacy embedded within the community to facilitate their job search. Additional, migrant trust networks function differently according to the DACA recipients' level of education, but to fully benefit from the advantages …

In Search Of Refuge: Mexican Refugees And Asylum Seekers To The U.S. From 1980 To The Present, Taylor Kristine Levy

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

An estimated 130,000 Mexicans have been murdered since 2006, with another 27,000 having been officially "disappeared;" approximately 2-3% of the adult Mexican population has been forced to leave their homes due to this violence, many of whom have entered the United States seeking refuge (Molloy, 2013; Olivares, 2012). These refugees have emigrated using a variety of both authorized and unauthorized channels, with a significant (and increasing) number applying for political asylum in the United States (Lyst, 2013). This Thesis seeks to provide a historic background and comprehensive analysis of the identity and struggles of the four types of modern Mexican …

Changing The Face Of American Culture: A New Perspective On Immigration, Stephanie Ann Quezada

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Immigration in the United States is currently a focal political and social issue. The nation's support for restricting immigration stems in part from the cultural threats made salient after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and from the recent influx of immigrants. The present research investigated the implications of perceiving immigration as voluntary or involuntary and permanent or temporary. Experiment 1, a pilot study, showed that U.S. citizens expect voluntary and permanent immigrants to assimilate to mainstream American culture. Experiment 1 also showed that U.S. citizens expressed greater anger toward immigrants who were permanently staying in the U.S., and greater …

When Medicine Divorces Morality: The Effects Of Immigration Status On Health Care Access In The United States, Angelica Menchaca

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This study highlights the importance of noting the heterogeneity of citizenship statuses among Latina/os when analyzing access to health care and health insurance attainment. A significant breakthrough in health care in the U.S. came on March 23, 2010 when President Barack Obama signed [H.R. 3590] The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) legislating a "universal" health care system in the U S. While the passing of this legislation might have been a historical accomplishment it was not a panacea for all those suffering from lack of health insurance. The objectives of this study were three fold: 1) to analyze …

Arab Muslim Immigrant Women's Experiences Of Living In The United States: A Qualitative Descriptive Study, Maissa Khatib

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Background: Over three million Arab Muslims live in the United States, and more than half are women (Nasser-McMillan, 2003). Little is known about these women in the growing and diverse Arab American Muslim population, and there is limited information available regarding their experiences of living in the U.S. Their experiences influence multiple aspects of their lives, including functioning in mainstream culture, use of resources or agencies, and the decisions they make that shape their acculturation outcome.

Purpose: To describe the experiences of Arab Muslim immigrant women living in the U.S.

Methods: This qualitative study examined the shared experiences of immigrant …

"Operation Stone Garden": A Case Study Of Legitimation Of Violence And The Consequences For Mexican Immigrants In Chaparral, New Mexico, David Haller Mckenney

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

While globalization is widely theorized in terms of apolitical trans-border flows, this paper argues that the so-called "War on Terror," the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the so-called "War on Drugs" have legitimated the use of violence and aggression. This includes criminalization, closure, containment and deportation directed at trans-national flows of immigrants. Immigrants have become conflated with terrorists, drugs, crime and contamination as a generalized "other," to use Simmel's terms; they are typed as suspicious and dangerous strangers. From this perspective I suggest that the rise of contemporary security regimes or "the mobility regime" that emerged well before the …

Readiness For College: A Case Study Of Three Hispanic Immigrant Students Who Overcame The Odds, Holly Fields

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This study is about Hispanic, immigrant, low-income students who have graduated from high school college ready and the contexts from which they achieved such success. Few studies exist relative to immigrant, Hispanic student college readiness. This research hopes to provide insight into how institutional, peer and family culture helped to produce the success of the three students in this study.

The purpose of the study is to provide a deeper understanding of the ways in which immigrant, low-income, Hispanic students and the modern contexts of schools interact to produce distinct life experiences for the participating graduates. This study aims to …

The New Mexican Migration: Remembering Violence, Connecting, And Living In The Third Space, Uriel G. Posada

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The concept of identity has become a topic of discussion in the last few decades, especially with the growing immigration across several countries. Countries such as the United States and Canada are receiving people who arrive from different parts of the world and who are changing the composition of these countries. In this thesis I explore how a group of Mexican journalists are adjusting their identity as they live in countries outside of Mexico. Five of the journalists are now living in the United States, and one of them is in Canada. They were forced to leave Mexico after they …

News Coverage Of The Sergio Hernández Case In Newspapers Of The Border Region, Rodrigo Giovan Barragan

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This study analyzes the news coverage of two newspapers from the border region between the United States and México (El Paso Times) from El Paso, Texas; and (El Diario de Juárez) from Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, about the case of Sergio Hernández, a 15 year old Mexican teenager who was shot and killed by a U.S. Border Patrol agent in the boundary zone between both countries on June 7, 2010. Using a textual analysis of the stories published about this case in these newspapers, the research seeks to identify news frames and competing meanings of community and identity embedded in the …

Ni De Aquí Ni De Allá: Transnationalism And Political Participation In Latino/A Communities, Sergio I. Garcia-Rios

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

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Flag Waving As Visual Argument: 2006 Immigration Demonstrations And Cultural Citizenship, Richard D. Pineda

Richard D. Pineda

During the 2006 immigration rallies and demonstrations, hundreds of thousands of immigrants and their supporters tumed out to protest proposed immigration legislation. Flag waving was a key element of these demonstrations, in which participants employed both the U.S. flag and other national flags, most prominently Mexican flags. In this essay, we examine how flag waving functions as a visual argument that offers possibilities for establishing cultural and national citizenship and creating a visual form of refutation. Specifically, we argue that anti-immigration advocates see foreign flags as visual ideographs that represent recent immigrants' failure to assimilate, immigrants' deviant cultural practices, and …

At The Cross Roads: Us / Mexico Border Counties In Transition, Dennis L. Soden

IPED Technical Reports

In 1998, former Texas Comptroller John Sharp published Bordering the Future: Challenge and Opportunity in the Texas Border Region,which provided an assessment of the economic, political, and social condition of the Texas border counties. This report, commissioned by the US / Mexico Border Counties Coalition, extends those findings to all of the 24 U.S. counties that are contiguous with Mexico. As a region, if these 24 counties were the 51st state, how would they compare with the rest of the nation?

Interview No. 532, Leonel J. Castillo

Combined Interviews

Biography; circumstances leading to his appointment as INS Commissioner, including anecdotes about high government officials; his work at INS, including opposition to his policies, unannounced visits to INS centers and problems encountered, participation in apprehending the undocumented and conversations with them; bridge demonstration at El Paso-Cd. Juarez in March, 1979; meetings with with Mexican officials; Carter Plan for the Undocumented; criticism of INS policies by Chicano groups; trip to refugee camp in Thailand in 1978; the "Boat People"; the Tortilla Curtain; meetings with Lopez Portillo; Cuban refugees; United Farm Workers Unions with respect to undocumented migration; the KKK incident; Mennonite …

Interview No. 257, Josephine Wong, Grace Got, Herlinda Leong

Combined Interviews

Background; how their grandfather came to Mexico; the Mexican Revolution; schooling in the United States and Hong Kong; their late brother; immigration attorney Wellington Chew; experiences growing up in a Mexican cultural environment.

Interview No. 728, Eloisa Carvalho

Combined Interviews

Biographical information; recollections of old El Paso; work as Assistant to the Probation Officer; her involvement in various political campaigns; problems of senior citizens; improvements in living conditions for Mexican-Americans.

Interview No. 725, Juan J. Gaítan

Combined Interviews

Estuvo en el ejército de Estados Unidos en el Departamento de Aviación por 4 años. Vivió 11 años en Los Angles, CA después de retirarse del ejército. Trabajó en una agencia de General Motors en Los Angeles, CA. Hizo algo de capital y se fue a Del Rio, TX y puso una gasolineriao Posteriormente se dedicó a la política y asumio los puestos de Regidor de la Ciudad y Mayor Interino. Después de seis años en la política le fue propuesto el puesto de investigador del Departamento del Trabajo, el cual acepto (su trabajo actual). Habla de la Depresión, de …

Interview No. 299, National Chicano/Latino Conference On Immigration

Combined Interviews

Proceedings of conference held in San Antonio, Texas.

Interview No. 297, Seminar: Immigration And Public Policy

Combined Interviews

Seminar to discuss immigration and its effects on the press, the law, employment and economy, education, and human services. Held in El Paso, Texas.

Interview No. 402, Luis Velarde

Combined Interviews

Work done by his agency; characteristics of migrants from Mexico in the 1970's.

Interview No. 302, Discussion On Immigration

Combined Interviews

Jose Jaquez Medina (CASA), Agnes Lujan (Comite Contra la represion del gran jurado federal), and Ezequiel Lopez (ATM) discuss repression, discrimination, undocumented workers, unions, and their effect on Chicanos.

Discussion is in Spanish.

Interview No. 412, George Rodríquez, Jr.

Combined Interviews

Biographical background; education; discrimination; work experiences; immigration law and immigration lawyers; El Paso Mayer; Bert Williams; United States-Mexico relations; El Paso-Cd. Juárez economy; South El Paso business; Chicano/Mexican relations; shoplifting; President Echeverría of Mexico and his attitudes on Mexicans leaving Mexico; politics; Mexican American politicians; justice for Mexican Americans in El Paso; the Bicentennial.

Interview No. 172, Armond Jackson

Combined Interviews

Battle for Ciudad Juarez in 1919; agriculture in the Ciudad Juarez-El Paso area; Mexican immigration; bracero and mojado deportations of the 1930's.

See also Interview no. 519

Interview No. 144.3, Felix López Urdiales

Combined Interviews

Datos biográficos; condiciones socioeconómicas en Cd. Juárez a principios del siglo; la Revolución Mexicana; inmigración y los Texas Rangers; experiencias como trabajador migrante en los Estados Unidos.

Biography; early social and economic conditions in Ciudad Juárez; the Mexican Revolution; immigration and the Texas Rangers; experiences as a migrant worker in the United States.

Tape and transcript in Spanish.

Interview No. 157, Cleofas Calleros

Combined Interviews

Early life and migration to El Paso; reenganches and railroad workers; family background; immigration in Juarez-El Paso; beginning of work with U.S. Catholic Conference; Mexican evacuation, 1904-1905; housing in El Paso; Diaz-Taft meeting; wages in El Paso; refugees; World War I (brief); deportations of the 1930s; repatriations back to the United States; the term "Chicano."