Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Immigration Policing And Federalism Through The Lens Of Technology, Surveillance, And Privacy, Anil Kalhan

Anil Kalhan

With the deployment of technology, federal programs to enlist state and local police assistance with immigration enforcement are undergoing a sea change. For example, even as it forcefully has urged invalidation of Arizona’s S.B. 1070 and similar state laws, the Obama administration has presided over the largest expansion of state and local immigration policing in U.S. history with its implementation of the “Secure Communities” program, which integrates immigration and criminal history database systems in order to automatically ascertain the immigration status of every individual who is arrested and booked by state and local police nationwide. By 2012, over one fifth …

Living Among Guatemalan Mayans Is Fascinating Experience, Irene Scharf

Irene Scharf

I have just lived a dream. Five years ago I learned of a school where students of all ages could study Spanish intensively while living among the Guatemalan Mayans. Peace Accords had been signed in 1996, the government was encouraging tourism, and it was, finally, safe to visit.

Why a dream? Because, 25 years ago, when I traveled through Central and South America, I promised my family I would avoid Guatemala because of the perceived was dangers. During that trip, as I met my Europeans and other who had visited, remained safe, and found it a fascinating country, I vowed …

Policy On Immigration From The Southwest And Resulting Border Control Security Implications, Amber Gottfried, Arpit Bawa, Russel Goff, Austin Grelle, Marielynn Herrera

Student Papers in Public Policy

The attacks of September 11, 2001 (9/11) forced the United States to examine its immigration policies and how they relate to the national security of the nation. In the months following these events, Congress expanded the nation’s ability to collect data and share information on suspected terrorists through the passage of several laws focused on detaining and deportation of immigrants (Rosenblum, 2011). Although the intention of the enactment of these policies was to protect the nation from further terrorist attacks, they have created unforeseen impacts on populations identified as immigrants into the United States.

“I Now Pronounce You Polimigra”: Narrative Resistance To Police-Ice Interoperability, Meghan E. Conley

Societies Without Borders

Police-ICE interoperability, known colloquially by immigrant rights actors as PoliMigra, is the cooperation of state and local law enforcement with federal immigration authorities to enforce federal immigration law. Hailed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and state and local authorities as a “common sense” approach to immigration enforcement, such collaboration is asserted to aid authorities in identifying and apprehending potential or proven threats to the nation. In contrast, immigrant rights actors argue that the blurring of lines between local police and federal immigration agents ultimately produces vulnerability for communities, both immigrant and native-born. In …

"These Illegals": Personhood, Profit, And The Political Economy Of Punishment In Federal-Local Immigration Enforcement Partnerships, Daniel L. Stageman

Publications and Research

Contemporary popular discourse linking immigration and immigrants to crime has proved extremely difficult to dislodge, despite clear evidence that immigrant labor provides broad and direct economic benefits to a significant proportion of the US population. The criminalizing discourse directed at immigrants may in part be functional, by leading to restrictionist immigration policies and practices and subjecting immigrants to intensified economic exploitation.

This study examines the economic context in which state and local governments adopt restrictionist immigration policies and practices, and implicates the political economy of punishment (Rusche and Kirchheimer, Punishment and social structure. New York: Columbia University Press, 1939) …