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“They say it’s a crime for us to be here”: Latinx reflections on the myth of the “criminal immigrant” in the Trump era

Dicen que estar aquí es un crimen”: Reflexiones latinas sobre el mito del “inmigrante criminal” en la era de Trump

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Abstract

Media and public discourse perpetuate the myth that immigrants—particularly those from Latin America and the undocumented—are crime-prone. Numerous empirical studies refute this. Fewer studies examine how Latinx communities internalize these faulty associations, or how they perceive criminality of other Latinx people. We address two research questions: How do first- and second-generation Latinx individuals conceptualize immigration-related offenses (e.g., driving without a license or working without authorization) in relation to criminality? How do they view their own law-breaking behavior and that of other first- and second-generation Latinx people? To answer these questions, we analyze data from focus groups in a diverse South Florida community with a large indigenous Guatemalan-Maya population. We find participants’ framing of their own immigration-related offenses, like working without authorization or driving without a license, can be understood through the lens of techniques of neutralization. We also find participants exhibited a unique “immigrant legal consciousness” in which immigration-related law-breaking is distinct from “mainstream” state-centered definitions of criminal behavior.

Resumen

Los medios y el discurso público perpetúan el mito de que los inmigrantes, particularmente los latinoamericanos e indocumentados, son propensos al crimen. Esto se refuta en numerosos estudios empíricos. Son menos los estudios que analizan cómo las comunidades latinas internalizan estas asociaciones erróneas y cómo perciben la criminalidad de otras personas latinas. Abordamos dos preguntas investigativas: ¿Como conceptualizan las personas latinas de primera y segunda generación las infracciones relacionadas con la inmigración (por ej., guiar sin licencia o laborar sin permiso de trabajo) con respecto a la criminalidad? ¿Cómo ven su propia conducta transgresora y la de otras personas latinas de primera y segunda generación? Para responder estas preguntas analizamos los datos de grupos focales en una comunidad diversa del sur de la Florida con una extensa población indígena de guatemaltecos maya. Encontramos que la forma en que los participantes plantean sus propias infracciones relacionadas con la migración, como laborar sin permiso de trabajo o guiar sin licencia, se puede entender si se observa a través del lente de las técnicas de neutralización. También encontramos que los participantes exhiben una singular “consciencia legal de inmigrante” en la que las transgresiones legales relacionadas con la inmigración se distinguen de las definiciones dominantes y estadocéntricas de conducta criminal.

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Notes

  1. We adopt Blackwell et al.’s conceptualization of the term “Latinx” to (1) reflect “the shifting terrain of identification,” (2) embrace “the diversity of Latinidad by not erasing difference and specificity,” (3) reject “the colonial nature of the imposition of gender binaries,” and (4) recognize “the ways indigeneity, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, race, class and other intersecting oppressions are produced over multiple contexts,” particularly within the context of mass migration from Latin America to the United States (2017, pp. 129–130). This framework is especially salient in the context of our study, which centers the voices of Guatemalan Mayans—who are at once indigenous, Latin American, and immigrant—among those of Honduran, Mexican, and Puerto Rican individuals residing in South Florida. For further discussion of the term “Latinx” see Salinas and Lozano 2019.

  2. First-generation immigrants are individuals who were born abroad but subsequently immigrated to the United States. Second-generation immigrants are the US-born children of a parent who immigrated to the United States.

  3. Although just under half of all those deported have prior criminal convictions, most convictions are for immigration and other nonviolent offenses, including traffic violations (ICE 2018).

  4. The subdiscipline of critical criminology—including Marxist and neo-Marxist, critical race, left realist, feminist, crimes of the powerful, green, cultural, peacemaking, abolitionist, postmodern, postcolonial, border, and queer criminologies—has long highlighted the racist, sexist, and classist nature of theories of crime and criminality, as well as criminal justice enforcement and the law more generally. More recently, such critiques have been extended to matters of disability, gender identity and sexuality, immigration status, and native and indigenous communities, revealing the ways in which “crime” and “the law” are often used to perpetuate hierarchical systems of exploitation, marginalization, and oppression, as well as the role mainstream criminological and sociolegal research (and scholars) play in normalizing such harms (Barak 2023). We situate this study among such literature.

  5. E-Verify is an online system allowing US employers to confirm the work eligibility of their employees (E-Verify 2021). Although it is a voluntary program, federal employers and contractors are generally required to enroll in E-Verify (E-Verify 2021).

  6. An earlier wave of Guatemalan migration to the United States was triggered by military rule in the nation between 1979 and 1984, a period of extreme state-sponsored violence and repression amid political turmoil and military conflict spanning nearly four decades (Chamarbagwala and Morán 2011). Between 1960 and 1996, upward of 200,000 Guatemalans were killed or disappeared and between 500,000 and one million were displaced (Chamarbagwala and Morán 2011).

  7. Although US citizens, many Puerto Ricans may perceive of themselves as somewhere in-between being an “immigrant” and being fully “American.” See Duany (2002) for a more nuanced discussion of this point.

  8. Our IRB-approved study design did not limit participation by citizenship or country of birth. Still, as the community center we partnered with served primarily the local Latinx immigrant community, we did not expect our study to attract Latinx individuals who held US citizenship at birth. When two individuals self-identifying as having US citizenship from birth wanted to participate in a focus group, we chose a welcoming and inclusive approach that more accurately reflected the demographics of the local community and invited them to stay. This afforded rich insights into shared Latinx experiences that span national and ethnic origin—as well as some important differences—that are ripe for future study.

  9. All three researchers are fluent in Spanish; one is a native speaker of Spanish. All three researchers have previous experience conducting social science research on matters of crime, law, and justice with Spanish-speaking populations in the United States and abroad, and two researchers have experience conducting Spanish-language interpretation in immigration legal settings.

  10. Focus group data was translated into English by the research team for inclusion in this paper.

  11. For a discussion of the ways immigration law shapes the everyday lives of undocumented Mexicans and the behavioral and psychological work undocumented immigrants engage in to present as “legal,” see Garcia 2019.

  12. For a discussion on navigating Latinx identity as an immigration enforcement agent, as well as agent perceptions of immigrant criminality, see Cortez (2021).

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Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge the study participants, as well as the community center that generously supported the project by aiding participant recruitment and hosting our focus groups.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Michigan-Dearborn, Dearborn, MI, USA

    Maya Pagni Barak

  2. Washington State University, Pullman, WA, USA

    Hillary Mellinger

  3. University of California, Irvine, CA, USA

    Belén Lowrey-Kinberg

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  1. Maya Pagni Barak
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  2. Hillary Mellinger
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  3. Belén Lowrey-Kinberg
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Correspondence to Maya Pagni Barak.

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Barak, M.P., Mellinger, H. & Lowrey-Kinberg, B. “They say it’s a crime for us to be here”: Latinx reflections on the myth of the “criminal immigrant” in the Trump era. Lat Stud (2024). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41276-023-00440-4

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