“Too Bad I’m Not an Obvious Citizen”: The effects of racialized US immigration enforcement practices on second-generation Mexican youth

Abstract

Over the last two decades, border residents have come under increased surveillance during stepped-up policing of the US-Mexico border. Second-generation Mexican youth - the US born children of immigrants - should be insulated from mistreatment by immigration officials. However, racialized immigration enforcement practices target these teenagers who are coming of age in this borderland milieu. Drawing from extensive fieldwork conducted with 54 teenagers in San Diego, this article describes how immigration enforcement practices reinforce a racialized form of belonging that has negative effects on youth, but also highlights how these youth deploy strategies of resistance to contest them. Latino Studies (2013) 11, 462-482. doi:10.1057/lst.2013.28