Suchergebnisse

Historically, periods of accelerating immigration have been accompanied by nativist alarms, perceptions of threat, and pervasive stereotypes of the newcomers, particularly during economic downturns or national crises, and when immigrants have arrived en masse and differed from the native born in language, race, religion, and national origin. Stereotypes about immigrants and crime not only take root in public opinion and popular myth, but can also provide the underpinnings for public policies and shape political behavior. Such stereotypes, fueled by media coverage of singular events and reinforced in popular culture, project an enduring image of immigrant communities permeated by criminal elements. Moral panics can be spread by "agents of indignation" (the media, pundits, political figures) and propel public support for the need to "police the crisis." Immigrants are commonly stereotyped as more likely to become involved with crime and to be arrested and incarcerated. This is especially true for Mexican and Central American immigrants, who are often young men from racialized minorities with little formal education coming to work in low-wage manual labor jobs. The fact that many of these immigrants enter the country through unauthorized channels or overstay their visas is further framed as an assault against the "rule of law," reinforcing the impression that immigration and criminality are linked; and those who are deported are perceived as not only "undocumented laborers" but "criminal aliens." This article reviews research findings on immigration and crime in Southern California, and deportation and crime in El Salvador. We focus on the experiences of young adult children of immigrants, mainly Mexicans, Salvadorans and Guatemalans who together account for two-thirds or more of the undocumented immigrant population in the U.S.; and on men, including former gang members, who have been deported to El Salvador on criminal and non-criminal charges. The evidence rebuts popular myths that immigrants and deportees are more prone to criminal behavior than natives and citizens. Nationally, rates of incarceration among immigrant men are much lower than among their U.S.-born counterparts. Like crime generally, the problem of gangs in the U.S. is primarily one that involves the U.S. born, who as citizens are not deportable; and despite the aim of public policies to remove problematic "criminal" and "illegal" beings, deportation is not the end of the cycle of migration. Stereotypes endure because they serve basic defensive social functions, maintain belief consistency, and preclude cognitive dissonance; they are rooted in emotion and impervious to fact. A politics of fear, xenophobia, and hyperbolic moral indignation about "law breaking" by "illegal aliens" may help "rally the base," especially in times of rapid demographic change and perceived social and economic threats. But it is no substitute for scientific evidence and reasoned analysis in law making, formulation of policy, and the understanding of complex social problems.

Executive SummaryAnti-immigrant rhetoric and constricting avenues for asylum in the United States, amid continuing high rates of poverty, environmental crisis, and violence in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, have led many migrants from these countries to remain in Mexico. Yet despite opportunities for humanitarian relief in Mexico, since the early 2000s the Mexican government, under growing pressure from the United States, has pursued enforcement-first initiatives to stem northward migration from Central America. In July 2014, Mexico introduced the Southern Border Program (SBP) with support from the United States. The SBP dramatically expanded Mexico's immigration enforcement efforts, especially in its southern border states, leading to rising deportations. Far from reducing migration or migrant smuggling, these policies have trapped migrants for longer in Mexico, made them increasingly susceptible to crimes by a wide range of state and nonstate actors, and exacerbated risk along the entire migrant trail.In recognition of rising crimes against migrants and heeding calls from civil society to protect migrant rights, Mexico's 2011 revision to its Migration Law expanded legal avenues for granting humanitarian protection to migrants who are victims of crimes in Mexico, including the provision of a one-year humanitarian visa so that migrants can collaborate with the prosecutor's office in the investigation of crimes committed against them.The new humanitarian visa laws were a significant achievement and represent a victory by civil society keen on protecting migrants as they travel through Mexico. The wider atmosphere of impunity, however, alongside the Mexican government's prioritization of detaining and deporting migrants, facilitates abuses, obscures transparent accounting of crimes, and limits access to justice. In practice, the laws are not achieving their intended outcomes. They also fail to recognize how Mexico's securitized migration policies subject migrants to risk throughout their journeys, including at border checkpoints between Guatemala and Honduras, along critical transit corridors in Guatemala, and on the Guatemalan side of Mexico's southern border.In this article, we examine a novel set of data from migrant shelters — 16 qualitative interviews with migrants and nine with staff and advocates in the Mexico–Guatemala border region, as well as 118 complaints of abuses committed along migrants' journeys — informally filed by migrants at a shelter on the Guatemalan side of the border, and an additional eight complaints filed at a shelter on the Mexican side of the border. We document and analyze the nature, location, and perpetrators of these alleged abuses, using a framework of "compassionate repression" (Fassin 2012) to examine the obstacles that migrants encounter in denouncing abuses and seeking protection. We contend that while humanitarian visas can provide necessary protection for abuses committed in Mexico, they are limited by their temporary nature, by being nested within a migration system that prioritizes migrant removal, and because they recognize only crimes that occur in Mexico. The paradox between humanitarian concerns and repressive migration governance in a context of high impunity shapes institutional and practical obstacles to reporting crimes, receiving visas, and accessing justice. In this context, a variety of actors recognize that they can exploit and profit from migrants' lack of mobility, legal vulnerability, and uncertain access to protection, leading to a commodification of access to humanitarian protection along the route.

How Latina girls and women become entangled in the criminal justice systemDespite representing roughly 16 percent of incarcerated women, Latina women and girls are often rendered invisible in accounts of American crime and punishment. In Latinas in the Criminal Justice System, Vera Lopez and Lisa Pasko bring together a group of distinguished scholars to provide a more complete, nuanced picture of Latinas as victims, offenders, and targets of deportation. Featuring Cecilia Menjívar, Lisa M. Martinez, Alice Cepeda, and others, this volume examines the complex histories, backgrounds, and struggles of Latinas in the criminal justice system. Contributors show us how Latinas encounter a variety of justice systems, including juvenile detention, adult court and corrections, and immigration and customs enforcement. Topics include Latina victims of crime and their perceptions of police officers; the impact of the US "crimmigration" system on undocumented Latina women; and help-seeking among Latina victims of intimate partner violence. Additionally, key chapters highlight the emergence of legal reforms, community mobilization efforts, and gender-sensitive alternatives to incarceration designed to increase equitable outcomes. Lopez and Pasko broaden our understanding of how gender, ethnicity, and legal status uniquely shape the experiences of system-impacted Latina girls and women. Latinas in the Criminal Justice System is a timely and much-needed resource for academics, activists, and policymakers