Abstract
Punishing Immigrants: Policy, Politics, and Injustice, edited by Kubrin, Zatz, and Martinez, addresses a series of issues raised by the strengthening of the immigration–crime nexus in the post-9/11 era. It focuses on various forms of victimization in the United States and abroad, the impact of socio-legal practices on communities, as well as the responses of individual immigrants and immigrant communities to their victimization. The book’s first three chapters analyze how immigration policies have been turned into new modes of social control. For Michael Welch, this process has been fueled by a ‘moral panic’ over immigrants who are increasingly perceived as posing a threat to national identity, national prosperity, and national security. Restrictive legislation targeting a growing number of potentially dangerous ‘others’ (such as illegal immigrants, asylum seekers, and all ‘invading deviant’ foreigners) was subsequently adopted before 9/11 in the United States, as well as in many countries (such as Australia). According to Welch, the ‘construction of risks’ has little to do with actual fears of terrorism; it is rather the result of a culture of fear that, in turn, generates a ‘permanent state of exception’ (Agamben). In this context, immigration laws have become ‘counter-laws’ that impose increasing restrictions on freedoms and liberties. The emergence of new modes of social controls involves various actors. Welch analyzes the role of private actors in the development of ‘markets of social control’, such as detention-industrial complexes. Krysten Sinema examines the role of ‘moral entrepreneurs’ (such as anti-immigration organizations like Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)) at the state level in her historical examination of the origins of Arizona law Senate Bill (SB) 1070. Doris Marie Provine et al. adopt an innovative perspective in their study of the creation of formal partnerships between federal immigration authorities and local police, as illustrated by the ‘Secure Communities’ initiative. Analyzing the responses of local police agencies, they present empirical data that demonstrates a growing tension between the devolution of immigration control and the principles of community policing. They argue that these principles ‘may play a role in decisions about whether or not to report suspected unauthorized immigrants to federal authorities’ (p. 54). The devolution of federal immigration law enforcement thus put police in ‘the awkward position of being charged with law enforcement but imbued with values that suggest the wisdom of sometimes not enforcing the law’ (p. 57).
The chapters in the second part of the book address the consequences of criminalization for individuals and communities. Their overall theme is that immigration and refugee policies have unanticipated consequences that radiate in multiple directions (both in the receiving and sending countries) and generate a ‘secondary victimization’ that affects family members in particular and communities more generally. Evelyn Cruz examines the breach of trust that can arise when criminal defense attorneys are unaware of the consequences of the advice they offer to immigrant clients. She points out that ‘the line between criminal proceedings and immigration proceedings has blurred’. (p. 91) As a consequence, the responsibility to protect the due process rights of noncitizen defendants has been undermined, as illustrated by the controversial federal prosecution of undocumented workers in Postville (Iowa) and the related experience of criminal defense attorneys in Arizona in the process of assisting noncitizen defendants. These two cases, Cruz argues, illustrate how the merging of criminal and immigration proceedings can lead to the abuse of the deportation system, as well as the erosion of immigrants’ confidence in the judicial system. The central focus of the chapter by Kathleen Dingeman-Cerda and Susan Bibler Coutin is the issue of deportation. They examine the confounding effects of deportation in contesting the common assumption that noncitizens are returned to their homelands. Based on the empirical data collected in El Salvador, they suggest instead that ‘deportees frequently experience removal as an exile from their home country’ (p. 115). Being regarded by Salvadorians as ‘foreign’, deportees suffer from prejudice and violence. Deportation also has a dramatic impact on spouses and children left behind in the United States as a result of stigmatization and other forms of ‘social suffering’. Wenona Rymond-Richmond and John Hagan look at the issues raised by new forms of victimization that have emerged in refugee camps in Darfur, such as family disruption, domestic violence, and poverty. They provide evidence that victimization, resulting from genocide, continues for survivors long after the killings are over.
The book’s third section shifts to the consideration of specific cases that related to the complex and controversial relationship between immigration and crime. Maria Vélez and Christopher Lyons introduce neglected avenues for examining the impact of immigrants on criminality. There is a vast literature in the field of criminal research that demonstrates that immigration either has no impact on local crime or reduces neighborhood crime. Vélez and Lyons, however, investigate the conditions that ‘may exacerbate or hamper the ability of immigrants to revitalize and reinvigorate communities’ (p. 160). Utilizing a unique set of data from the National Neighborhood Crime Study, they test the effect of a gateway status at the city level. They find that the ‘context of reception’ significantly matters – immigrants fare much better in contexts that are receptive to them. Paola Bertolini and Michelle Lalla likewise look at the effect of territorial patterns on immigrants’ behavior. They focus on educational achievements among Italians, foreign-born immigrants, and Italian-born immigrants in different regions of Italy. They conclude that the social and economic structures of the region where immigrants live are crucial in shaping educational opportunities and securing full integration into the larger society. Alice Cepeda et al. analyze Latino immigrant day laborers in their study of post-Katrina New Orleans. They find that the growing presence of Latino immigrants has created a series of problems, such as violent tensions between Latinos and African-American residents (as well as among various Latino communities), that are exacerbated by the city’s negative receptiveness to incoming immigrants. As a result, Latino immigrants are exposed to chronic stressful circumstances to which they respond by coping mechanisms such as the avoidance strategy.
Each chapter in this book sheds light on common, as well as less common aspects, of the criminalization of immigrants in the post-9/11 era. They do so from an interdisciplinary perspective and by drawing on multiple locations. One of this volume’s important contributions is thus how it complements prior studies on the victimization process by focusing on the immigrants’ perspective, notably those of deportees and undocumented immigrants. Another, as noted in the introduction, is how it ably addresses the ‘varying complexities surrounding immigration and crime, law and victimization’ (p. 2). Rejecting bland generalities or simple aggregate statistics, the chapters focus on several key factors that condition an immigrant’s propensity to commit a crime. In general, immigrants are less prone to commit crimes than natives but what emerges from these studies is that the context of reception significantly matters. Depending on socio-economic factors, immigrants are more or less able to secure their local neighborhood – and are more or less vulnerable to violent victimization. Although the chapters vary in terms of how closely they relate to the immigration–crime nexus and victimization processes, this volume provides an accessible analysis of timely topics and complements other more comprehensive research by providing useful insights to a generally well-educated audience.