SOAN Colloquium Talk, co-hosted by the Institute for Immigration Research (IIR)

Elizabeth Vaquera, "Fear and Vulnerability: Social Consequences of Enforcement Practices in the Lives of Undocumented Immigrant Young"

Wednesday, October 1, 2014 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM EDT
Commerce Building, Room 3006 (IIR Building, 4087 University Dr.)

Drawing from in-depth interviews with young adults who migrated to the U.S. as undocumented children, I argue that the current immigration enforcement system embodies a colorblind racial project of the state rooted in the racial structure of society that results in racism toward immigrants. Approaching racism from structural and social process perspectives, I illustrate the social consequences of enforcement practices in the lives of these immigrant young adults. Although legal discourse regarding immigration enforcement theoretically purports colorblindness, racial practices such as profiling subject immigrants to arrest, detention, and deportation, in effect, criminalizing them. Further, enforcement practices produce distress, vulnerability, and anxiety in the lives of young immigrants and their families, often resulting in legitimate fears of detention and deportation since enforcement measures disproportionately affect Latinos.