Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

“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

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Latino Studies Aims and scope Submit manuscript

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.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

Not applicable.

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).

References

  • Abrego, L.J. 2011. Legal Consciousness of Undocumented Latinos: Fear and Stigma as Barriers to Claims-Making for First- and 1.5-Generation Immigrants. Law and Society Review 45 (2): 337–369.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Adelman, R., L.W. Reid, G. Markle, S. Weiss, and C. Jaret. 2017. Urban Crime Rates and the Changing Face of Immigration: Evidence across Four Decades. Journal of Ethnicity in Criminal Justice 15 (1): 52–77.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aguirre, A., Jr., E. Rodriguez, and J.K. Simmers. 2011. The Cultural Production of Mexican Identity in the United States: An Examination of the Mexican Threat Narrative. Social Identities 17 (5): 695–707.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aja, A.A. 2016. Miami’s Forgotten Cubans: Race, Racialization, and the Miami Afro-Cuban Experience. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Alexander, K., and T. Opsal. 2020. “That’s Just What You Do”: Applying the Techniques of Neutralization to College Hazing. Deviant Behavior 42 (10): 1295–1312. https://doi.org/10.1080/01639625.2020.1738649.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • American Immigration Council. 2020. Immigrants in Florida. American Immigration Council, 31 January. https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/immigrants-florida.

  • Arizona State Legislature. 2010. Senate Bill 1070. 49th Legislature, 2nd Session, 2010.

  • Armenta, A. 2017. Protect, Serve, and Deport: The Rise of Policing as Immigration Enforcement. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bacon, D. 2008. Illegal People: How Globalization Creates Migration and Criminalizes Immigrants. Boston: Beacon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barak, G., ed. 2015. The Routledge International Handbook of the Crimes of the Powerful. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barak, M.P. 2023. The Slow Violence of Immigration Court: Procedural Justice on Trial. New York: NYU Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Barak, M., and P. Leighton. 2013. Victims, Immigrant. In Encyclopedia of Street Crime in America, ed. Jeffrey I. Ross, 439–441. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barak, M.P., K.S. León, and E.R. Maguire. 2020. Conceptual and Empirical Obstacles in Defining MS-13: Law-Enforcement Perspectives. Criminology and Public Policy 19: 563–589.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blackwell, M., F.B. Lopez, and L. Urrieta Jr. 2017. Special issue: Critical Latinx Indigeneities. Latino Studies 15: 126–137.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Block, C.R. 1985. Race/Ethnicity and Patterns of Chicago Homicide 1965 to 1981. Crime and Delinquency 31 (1): 104–116.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boyd, S. 2002. Media Constructions of Illegal Drugs, Users, and Sellers: A Closer Look at Traffic. International Journal of Drug Policy 13 (5): 397–407.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bradford, B., E. Sargeant, K. Murphy, and J. Jackson. 2017. A Leap of Faith? Trust in the Police among Immigrants in England and Wales. British Journal of Criminology 57 (2): 381–401.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brisman, A. 2010. Fictionalized Criminal Law and Youth Legal Consciousness. New York Law School Law Review 55 (4): 1039–1071.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bryant, E., E.B. Schimke, H.N. Brehm, and C. Uggen. 2018. Techniques of Neutralization and Identity Work among Accused Genocide Perpetrators. Social Problems 65 (4): 584–602.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bursik, R.J., Jr. 2006. Rethinking the Chicago School of Criminology: A New Era of Immigration. In Immigration and Crime: Race, Ethnicity and Violence, ed. Ramiro Martinez Jr and Abel Valenzuela, 1–19. New York: New York University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Calavita, K. 2010. Invitation to Law and Society: An Introduction to the Study of Real Law, 1st ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Cavallero, J.J., and G. Plasketes. 2004. Gangsters, Fessos, Tricksters, and Sopranos: The Historical Roots of Italian American Stereotype Anxiety. Journal of Popular Film and Television 32 (2): 50–73.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chan, J. C. 2018. Immigrant Stereotypes Are Everywhere on TV. The Atlantic, 21 October. https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/10/immigrant-portrayals-tv-stereotypes-annenberg-study-rafael-agustin-jane-the-virgin/573427/.

  • Chamarbagwala, R., and H.E. Morán. 2011. The Human Capital Consequences of Civil War: Evidence from Guatemala. Journal of Development Economics 94: 41–61.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chambliss, W. 1964. A Sociological Analysis of the Law of Vagrancy. Social Problems 12: 45–69.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chavez, L.R. 2008. The Latino Threat: Constructing Immigrants, Citizens, and the Nation. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chavez, L. 2013. The Latino Threat: Constructing Immigrants, Citizens, and the Nation, 2nd ed. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chu, D.C., and L.S.J. Hung. 2010. Chinese Immigrants Attitudes toward the Police in San Francisco. Policing: an International Journal 33 (4): 621–643.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cortez, D. 2021. Latinxs in La Migra: Why They Join and Why It Matters. Political Research Quarterly 74 (3): 688–702.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coutin, S. B. 2000. Legalizing Moves: Salvadoran Immigrants’ Struggle for US Residency. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

  • Coutin, S.B. 2007. Nation of Emigrants: Shifting Boundaries of Citizenship in El Salvador and the United States. New York: Cornell University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cruz, J.M. 2015. Police Misconduct and Political Legitimacy in Central America. Journal of Latin American Studies 47 (2): 251–283.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Duany, J. 2002. The Puerto Rican Nation on the Move: Identities on the Island and in the United States. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Engel, D.M., and F.W. Munger. 2003. Rights of Inclusion: Law and Identity in the Life Stories of Americans with Disabilities. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Erba, J. 2018. Media Representations of Latina/os and Latino Students’ Stereotype Threat. Howard Journal of Communications 29 (1): 83–102.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • E-Verify. 2021. Learn More About E-Verify and MyE-Verify. Department of Homeland Security. https://www.e-verify.gov/. Accessed 7 Oct 2021.

  • Ewick, P., and S.S. Silbey. 1998. The Common Place of Law: Stories from Everyday Life. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Fairclough, N. 2011. Critical Discourse Analysis. In The Routledge Handbook of Discourse Analysis, ed. James Paul Gee and Michael Handford, 9–20. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Farris, E.M., and H.S. Mohamed. 2018. Picturing Immigration: How the Media Criminalizes Immigrants. Politics, Groups, and Identities 6 (4): 814–824.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Flagg, A. 2018. The Myth of the Criminal Immigrant. The Marshall Project. 30 March. https://www.themarshallproject.org/2018/03/30/the-myth-of-the-criminal-immigrant.

  • Gallup. 2017. Immigration. https://news.gallup.com/poll/1660/immigration.aspx. Accessed 1 Feb 2021.

  • Garcia, A.S. 2019. Legal Passing: Navigating Undocumented Life and Local Immigration Law. Oakland: University of California Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Ghatak, S. 2010. Threat Perceptions: The Policing of Dangers from Eugenics to the War on Terrorism. Plymouth, UK: Lexington Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Glaser, B.G. 1965. The Constant Comparative Method of Qualitative Analysis. Social Problems 12 (4): 436–445.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Global Affairs Canada. 2018. Guatemala–Cultural Information. https://www.international.gc.ca/global-affairs-affaires-mondiales/services/cfsi-icse/cultural-insights-apercu-culturelles/guatemala.aspx?lang=eng. Accessed 1 Feb 2021.

  • Goffman, A. 2014. On the Run: Fugitive Life in the American City. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Golash-Boza, T. 2015. Deported: Immigrant Policing, Disposable Labor and Global Capitalism. New York: New York University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Gonzales, R.G. 2011. Learning to Be Illegal: Undocumented Youth and Shifting Legal Contexts in the Transition to Adulthood. American Sociological Review 76 (4): 602–619.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hagan, J., and A. Palloni. 1999. Sociological Criminology and the Mythology of Hispanic Immigration and Crime. Social Problems 46 (4): 617–632.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Halcomb, E.J., L. Gholizadeh, M. DiGiacomo, J. Phillips, and P.M. Davidson. 2007. Literature Review: Considerations in Undertaking Focus Group Research with Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Groups. Journal of Clinical Nursing 16 (6): 1000–1011.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hing, B.O. 2004. Defining America through Immigration Policy. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hondagneu-Sotelo, P. 2001. Doméstica: Immigrant Workers Cleaning and Caring in the Shadows of Affluence. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement). 2018. ICE Removals by Criminality FY2006-FY2017. https://www.ice.gov/foia/library.

  • Johnson, K.R., R. Aldana, B.O. Hing, and L. Saucedo. 2009. Understanding Immigration Law. Newark: LexisNexis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaptein, M., and M. van Helvoort. 2019. A Model of Neutralization Techniques. Deviant Behavior 40 (10): 1260–1285. https://doi.org/10.1080/01639625.2018.1491696.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kerwin, D. 2018. From IIRIRA to Trump: Connecting the Dots to the Current US Immigration Policy Crisis. Journal on Migration and Human Security 6 (3): 192–204.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Korte, G., and A. Gomez. 2018. Trump Ramps Up Rhetoric on Undocumented Immigrants: “These Aren’t People. These Are Animals”. USA Today, 16 May. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/05/16/trump-immigrants-animals-mexico-democrats-sanctuary-cities/617252002/.

  • Krueger, R.A., and M.A. Casey. 2015. Focus Groups: A Practical Guide for Applied Research, 5th ed. London: SAGE.

    Google Scholar 

  • León, K. S., and Barak, M. 2019. The Salvadorian Willie Horton: MS-13, Electoral Politics and Racialized Fear Mongering. Citizen Critics, July 22. https://citizencritics.org/2019/07/the-salvadoran-willie-horton-ms-13-electoral-politics-and-racialized-fear-mongering/. Accessed 1 Feb 2021.

  • Liamputtong, P. 2011. Focus Group Methodology: Principles and Practice. London: SAGE.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Longazel, J. 2013. Subordinating Myth: Latino/a Immigration, Crime, and Exclusion. Sociology Compass 7 (2): 87–96.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Longazel, J. 2016. Undocumented Fears: Immigration and the Politics of Divide and Conquer in Hazleton, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lowrey-Kinberg, B., M.P. Barak, and H. Mellinger. 2020. Perceptions of Justice among Guatemalan-Mayans and Latinos of South Florida: A Call for Further Study of Procedural Justice in Minority Communities. Social Justice: A Journal of Crime, Conflict & World Order 47 (1/2): 171–193.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lucas, Anne M. 2005. Huddled Masses: Immigrants in Detention. Punishment and Society 7 (3): 323–239.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Madriz, E. 2000. Focus Groups in Feminist Research. In Handbook of Qualitative Research, 2nd ed., ed. N.K. Denzin and Y.S. Lincoln, 835–850. London: SAGE.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martinez Jr., R. 2002. Latino Homicide: Immigration, Violence and Community. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martinez Jr., R. 2006. Coming to America: The Impact of the New Immigration on Crime. In Immigration and Crime: Race, Ethnicity and Violence, ed. Ramiro Martinez Jr. and Abel Valenzuela Jr., 1–19. New York: New York University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martinez, R., Jr., M.T. Lee, and A.L. Nielsen. 2001. Revisiting the Scarface Legacy: The Victim/Offender Relationship and Mariel Homicides in Miami. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences 23 (1): 37–56.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maruna, S., and H. Copes. 2005. What Have We Learned from Five Decades of Neutralization Research? Crime and Justice 32: 221–320.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Matza, D. 1964. Delinquency and Drift. New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • McKibben, C. 2015. Corruption Scandal and the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala. Washington Report on the Hemisphere 35 (6): 7–8.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mellinger, H., B. Lowrey-Kinberg, and M.P. Barak. 2023. Methodological and Practical Considerations for Cross-Cultural Focus Groups. Qualitative Criminology https://www.qualitativecriminology.com/pub/hrv0ab6c/release/1.

  • Menjívar, C. 2006. Liminal Legality: Salvadoran and Guatemalan Immigrants’ Lives in the United States. American Journal of Sociology 111 (4): 999–1037.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Menjívar, C. 2011. The Power of the Law: Central Americans’ Legality and Everyday Life in Phoenix. Arizona. Latino Studies 9 (4): 377–395.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Menjívar, C. 2012. Transnational Parenting and Immigration Law: Central Americans in the United States. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 38 (2): 301–322.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Menjívar, C. 2016. Immigrant Criminalization in Law and the Media: Effects on Latino Immigrant Workers’ Identities in Arizona. American Behavioral Scientist 60 (5/6): 597–616.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Minor, W.W. 1980. The Neutralization of Criminal Offense. Criminology 18 (1): 103–120.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Minor, W.W. 1984. Neutralization as a Hardening Process: Considerations in the Modeling of Change. Social Forces 62 (4): 995–1019.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moehling, C., and A.M. Piehl. 2009. Immigration, Crime, and Incarceration in Early Twentieth-Century America. Demography 46 (4): 739–763.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morgan, D.L. 1996. Focus Groups. Annual Review of Sociology 22: 1–52.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mounts, A.L. 2003. A Safer Nation?: How Driver’s License Restrictions Hurt Immigrants & Noncitizens. Not Terrorists. Indiana Law Review 37 (1): 247–274.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nakashima, E. 2019. Justice Dept. Admits Error but Won’t Correct Report Linking Terrorism to Immigration. Washington Post, 3 January. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/justice-dept-admits-error-but-wont-correct-report-linking-terrorism-to-immigration/2019/01/03/cd29997a-0f69-11e9-831f-3aa2c2be4cbd_story.html?utm_term=.565b6e0e5979.

  • Norman Lear Center and Define American. 2018. Immigration Nation: Exploring Immigrant Portrayals on Television. https://s3.amazonaws.com/i-src.defineamerican.com/2018/10/181016-Immigration-Nation.pdf. Accessed 22 June 2023.

  • Nowrasteh, A. 2018a. The White House’s Misleading and Error Ridden Narrative on Immigrants and Crime. CATO Institute. https://www.cato.org/blog/white-houses-misleading-error-ridden-narrative-immigrants-crime. Accessed 1 Feb 2021.

  • Nowrasteh, A. 2018b. Criminal Immigrants in Texas Illegal Immigrant Conviction and Arrest Rates for Homicide, Sex Crimes, Larceny, and Other Crimes. CATO Institute. https://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/irpb-4-updated.pdf. Accessed 22 June 2023.

  • O’Brien, M., R. Tzanelli, M. Yar, and S. Penna. 2005. The Spectacle of Fearsome Acts: Crime in the Melting P(l)ot in Gangs of New York. Critical Criminology 13: 17–35.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Padgett, T. 2014. From Scorched Earth to Palm Beach: The Maya Are Coming to Florida. WLRN. http://wlrn.org/post/scorched-earth-palm-beach-maya-are-coming-florida. Accessed 25 Feb

  • Pew Research Center. 2014. Demographic and Economic Profiles of Hispanics by State and County: Florida. https://www.pewresearch.org/hispanic/states/state/fl. Accessed 1 Feb 2021.

  • Pew Research Center. 2018. Latinos by Geography, Broward County, Florida. http://www.pewhispanic.org/states/county/12011/. Accessed 1 Feb 2021.

  • Pokorny, A. 1965. Human Violence: A Comparison of Homicide, Aggravated Assault, Suicide, and Attempted Suicide. Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology, and Police Science 56 (4): 488–497.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rosenwaike, I., and K. Hempstead. 1990. Mortality among Three Puerto Rican Populations: Residents of Puerto Rico and Migrants in New York City and in the Balance of the United States, 1979–81. International Migration Review 24 (4): 684–702.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ruiz, J. 2015. Dark Matters: Vince Gilligan’s Breaking Bad, Suburban Crime Dramas, and Latinidad in the Golden Age of Cable Television. Aztlan: A Journal of Chicano Studies 40 (1): 37–62.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ruiz, J. 2020. The Problem of Popularity: Transforming Pablo Escobar in US Media. Journal of Popular Culture 53 (5): 1066–1085.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rumbaut, R. G. 2008. Undocumented Immigration and Rates of Crime and Imprisonment: Popular Myths and Empirical Realities. Invited Address to the “Immigration Enforcement and Civil Liberties: The Role of Local Police.” National Conference, Police Foundation, Washington, DC, 21–22 August.

  • Rumbaut, R. G., R. G. Gonzales, G. Komaie, and C. V. Morgan. 2006. Debunking the Myth of Immigrant Criminality: Imprisonment among First- and Second-Generation Young Men. Migration Policy Institute. https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/debunking-myth-immigrant-criminality-imprisonment-among-first-and-second-generation-young. Accessed 7 May 2021.

  • Salinas, C., Jr., and A. Lozano. 2019. Mapping and Recontextualizing the Evolution of the term Latinx: An Environmental Scanning in Higher Education. Journal of Latinos and Education 18 (4): 302–315.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sarat, A. 1990. “The Law Is All Over’: Power, Resistance and the Legal Consciousness of the Welfare Poor. Yale Journal of Law and the Humanities 2 (2): 343–379.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sautman, F.C. 1994. Women of the Shadows: Italian American Women, Ethnicity and Racism in American Cinema. Differentia: Review of Italian Thought 6 (1): 219–246.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schrag, Peter. 2010. Not Fit for Our Society: Immigration and Nativism in America. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Shaw, C.R., and H.D. McKay. 1942. Juvenile Delinquency and Urban Areas, a Study of Rates of Delinquents in Relation to Differential Characteristics of Local Communities in American Cities. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Small, M.L. 2009. “How Many Cases Do I Need?” On Science and the Logic of Case Selection in Field-Based Research. Ethnography 10 (1): 5–38.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stinchcomb, D., and H. Hershberg. 2014. Unaccompanied Migrant Children from Central America: Context, Causes, and Responses. Center for Latin American and Latino Studies Working Paper Series 7: 7–40.

    Google Scholar 

  • Surette, Ray. 2015. Media, Crime and Criminal Justice, 5th ed. Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sykes, G.M., and D. Matza. 1957. Techniques of Neutralization: A Theory of Delinquency. American Sociological Review 22: 664–670.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • US DOJ (Department of Justice). 2020. What Are Identity Theft and Identity Fraud? https://www.justice.gov/criminal-fraud/identity-theft/identity-theft-and-identity-fraud. Accessed 1 Feb 2021.

  • Valverde, M. 2015. Chronotopes of Law: Jurisdiction, Scale and Governance. New York: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Wehr, H., A. Chary, M. Farley Webb, and P. Rohloff. 2016. Implications of Gender and Household Roles in Indigenous Maya Communities in Guatemala for Child Nutrition Interventions. International Journal of Indigenous Health 10 (1): 100–113.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Commission, Wickersham. 1931. Wickersham Commission Records, 1928–1931. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Law School Library.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wickes, R., and M. Sydes. 2015. Immigration and Crime. In The Routledge Handbook on Crime and International Migration, ed. S. Pickering and J. Ham, 11–25. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilbanks, W. 1984. Murder in Miami: An Analysis of Homicide Patterns and Trends in Dade County (Miami) Florida, 1917–1983. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yngvesson, B. 1988. Inventing Law in Local Settings: Rethinking Popular Legal Culture. Yale Law Journal 98 (8): 1689–1709.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zahn, M. 1987. Homicide in Nine American Cities: The Hispanic Case. In Research Conference on Violence and Homicide in Hispanic Communities Proceedings, ed. J.F. Kraus, S.B. Sorenson, and P.D. Juarez. Washington DC: US Department of Health and Human Services.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

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.

Author information

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

Authors
  1. Maya Pagni Barak
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Hillary Mellinger
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Belén Lowrey-Kinberg
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Maya Pagni Barak.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

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 21, 566–586 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41276-023-00440-4

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41276-023-00440-4

Keywords

Palabras clave

Search

Navigation