Corporatization, Institutional Legitimacy, and Color-blindness in Immigration Control

• In Event: 1284 - Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 21. Race/Ethnicity and Media

Abstract

In recent decades, the U.S. has witnessed the shift of immigration prosecution from civil to criminal courts and the privatization of detention and the services therein. The two trends have merged into a mutually reinforcing system with a clear financial incentive to detain immigrants. In this study, we focus on two facets: 1) the ranges of interpretations associated with these significant shifts related to immigration detention from groups whose interests span the ideological spectrum, and 2) the confluence and divergence of these interpretations and what they reveal about the maintenance of racialized social control. To undertake these examinations, we draw upon a qualitative analysis of frames within articles published in The New York Times from 1995 to 2015 on private detention of both domestic and immigrant populations. Though the practices of criminalization and corporatization are intertwined, narratives rarely relied on the explicit criminalization of immigrants and other groups to justify detention. Journalists and their sources consistently framed detention as a normal component of population management and an integral part of the U.S. economy. In particular, we observed a blurring boundary between private capital and public institutions of social control. We argue such findings suggest that private immigration detention has become an institutionalized practice, where it is taken for granted and normalized.

Authors

• Kim Ebert, North Carolina State University

• Emily P. Estrada, North Carolina State University

• Wenjie Liao, North Carolina State University