The Racialized Dimensions of Contemporary Immigration and Border Enforcement Policies and Practices

Immigration policies in the United States have not been explicitly race-based since the mid-20th Century. Nevertheless, the effects of contemporary US immigration enforcement practices are highly racialized. The further development of a “race conscious” approach in public policy and administration will help expand our understanding of the racialized dimensions of these policies and practices. Specifically, I call attention to how current approaches to immigration control disproportionately negatively affect non-White immigrants from the so-called “Global South,” contribute to racialization processes, and perpetuate racial inequality in the United States. Examples include the ways that undocumented immigration status is leading to the emergence of a new “underclass” in the United States, the separation and dissolution of Latino families through mass deportation, and the systematic criminalization of non-White undocumented immigrants from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.