Fear, Violence, and Punishment: The Everyday Workings of the U.S. Deportation Regime

Session Submission Type: Complete Thematic Panel

Abstract

Despite astronomical deportation rates throughout the first two decades of the twentieth century, the election of President Donald Trump has brought the issues of immigration enforcement and deportation in the United States into sharper focus than ever before. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has reported making almost 50 percent more arrests during President Trump’s first year in office than during the same period in 2016. Despite a slight lag in deportation rates, which has been attributed to court backlog and a decrease in border-crossing attempts, it is clear that deportation is only set to increase in coming years, as the Trump administration continues to ramp up immigration enforcement and broadens its scope beyond the “criminal aliens” who were the focus of the Obama administration. Through research examining the case variables that most impact immigration court removal decisions, the roles of punishment and legal resistance in the cases of immigrants with criminal convictions, the unique effects of fear of deportation for immigrant women who experience domestic violence, and the mechanisms of structural violence that shape spaces of deportation, the papers in this panel aim to shed light on the somewhat elusive everyday workings of the modern U.S. deportation regime.

Sub Unit

• Area VII. The Criminal Justice System / 51. Immigration and Justice Issues

Individual Presentations

• Understanding Immigration Court Practices in New York City: Racial Differentials and the Factors that Influence Deportations - Edwin Grimsley, The Graduate Center, CUNY

• Aggravated Felonies and the Crimmigration Nexus: Legal Resistance to Criminal Deportation - Sarah Rose Tosh, The Graduate Center, CUNY

• ¿Que Dirán? Making Sense of the Impact of Latinas’ Experiences of Domestic Violence and Fears of Deportation in New York City - Yolanda Ortiz Rodriguez, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY; Jayne Mooney, John Jay College of Criminal Justice / CUNY Graduate Center

• Social Banishment and the U.S. “Criminal Alien”: Norms of Violence and Repression in the Deportation Regime - David C. Brotherton, John Jay College of Criminal Justice / CUNY Graduate Center