The Right People: Minority Threat and Punitiveness toward Immigration Populations

• In Event: The Right People: The Purposive Policing and Correctional Control of People of Color

Abstract

Given a political and social climate in which the popular conception of an immigrant near universally conjures images of brown-skinned, Spanish-speaking migrants from Latin America, we explore whether the increasing vitriol of the dialogue surrounding immigration has been accompanied by increased punitiveness toward immigrants caught within the criminal justice system. Analyzing data from the U. S. Sentencing Commission, we determine whether the proportion of individuals convicted of immigration crimes has increased relative to the overall total federally-convicted population over the course of the past decade. Additionally, we compare the punitiveness of the sentencing of immigrants with that of U. S. citizens and of Latino immigrants compared with that of non-Hispanic immigrants, noting changes over the course of the past decade as the immigration debate has intensified. Finally, we suggest that minority threat theory provides potential explanations for differences in how immigrant populations, particularly those of Latino descent, are treated in the criminal justice system and propose how the Equal Protection Clause of the U. S. Constitution – extended to undocumented immigrants in the Supreme Court’s Plyler v. Doe decision – might be read to provide a vehicle of redressing this discrepancy.

Authors

• Kwan-Lamar Blount-Hill, John Jay College / Graduate Center, CUNY

• Jennifer Peirce, John Jay College of Criminal Justice / CUNY Graduate Center