The Racialized Dimensions of Contemporary Immigration and Border Enforcement Policies and Practices

Abstract

AbstractImmigration policies in the United States have not been explicitly race‐based since the mid‐20th Century. Nevertheless, the effects of contemporary US immigration enforcement practices are highly racialized. The further development of a “race conscious” approach in public policy and administration will help expand our understanding of the racialized dimensions of these policies and practices. Specifically, I call attention to how current approaches to immigration control disproportionately negatively affect non‐White immigrants from the so‐called “Global South,” contribute to racialization processes, and perpetuate racial inequality in the United States. Examples include the ways that undocumented immigration status is leading to the emergence of a new “underclass” in the United States, the separation and dissolution of Latino families through mass deportation, and the systematic criminalization of non‐White undocumented immigrants from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.