What is Your Citizenship Status? Citizenship Profiling of Latina/os by Law Enforcement

• In Event: 4412 - Section on Latino/a Sociology Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 05. Shifts in Support and in the Policing of Latina/o/xs in the United States

Abstract

Although racial profiling is widely studied, the related issue of citizenship profiling by law enforcement has received little scholarly attention. We argue that citizenship profiling is a contemporary form of Latina/o racialization. Citizenship profiling is highly salient in light of Secure Communities and other federal, state and local efforts to localize the enforcement of immigration laws and because this behavior represents a violation of civil rights. Using a sample of 677 adults residing in 46 neighborhoods in El Paso County, Texas, we assess the impacts of a variety of individual and neighborhood characteristics on the likelihood of being questioned about citizenship status by law enforcement. Results using hierarchical generalized linear models (HGLMs) show that, at the individual-level, first generation immigrants and second-generation Americans are more likely to be questioned than third generation Americans while, at the neighborhood-level, living in a high poverty neighborhood or a neighborhood with a mid-level of immigration increased the probability of being questioned. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Authors

• Maria Cristina Morales, University of Texas-El Paso

• Denise Delgado, University of Texas-El Paso

• Theodore Curry, University of Texas-El Paso