Undocumented and Racialized: Mexican undocumented women racialized in the U.S. through interactions in institutions

• In Event: 2333 - Latino/as

Abstract

Data shows that deportation affects mostly people who are just in the wrong place, at the wrong time, and yet, the politicians and media insists in framing deportation as a process that punishes migrants who engage in criminal behavior. Using the interviews of 60 undocumented immigrants in Philadelphia, when asked about fears of deportability, migrants turned to (1) how legal status shapes their everyday life, (2) how legal status and racialized experiences as linked, and (3) how specific actors (such as police officers and healthcare bureaucrats) play a role in the racialization of undocumented immigrants. We argue that the longer migrants live in the US, the more they understand deportability as a racialized process that targets them unfairly—this is in part because of their interactions with U.S. institutions such as the police.

Author

• Heidy Sarabia, California State University, Sacramento