Hostname: page-component-f554764f5-8cg97 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-23T03:52:09.480Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Crimmigration at the Local Level: Criminal Justice Processes in the Shadow of Deportation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Katherine Beckett  and
Heather Evans
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In recent decades, authorities have adopted a number of programs that tether the criminal and immigration enforcement apparatuses in novel ways. This mixed methods case study assesses the impact of such programs on local criminal justice processes and outcomes in King County, Washington. Although the empirical research on the effects of such programs is scant, the emerging literature on legal hybridity suggests that the enmeshment of the criminal and immigration systems is likely to enhance the state's power to detain and punish. The quantitative results support this hypothesis: non-citizens flagged by immigration authorities stay in jail significantly longer than their similarly situated counterparts. Qualitative focus group interviews with prosecuting and defense attorneys identify four key mechanisms by which Immigration Customs and Enforcement detainers alter the incentive structure, impact decisionmaking, and extend jail stays for non-citizens. Together, these findings suggest that immigration law and the threat of deportation now cast a long shadow over local as well as federal criminal proceedings, and enhance penal pain for non-citizens. Implications of these findings for the “crimmigration” literature and research on the effect of citizenship status on criminal justice outcomes are discussed.

Type
Articles
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 49 , Issue 1 , March 2015 , pp. 241 - 277
Copyright
© 2015 Law and Society Association.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Footnotes

Special thanks to Mike West, Program Manager in the King County Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention, for providing the administrative jail data and answering our questions about their construction. Thanks also to Lucie Bernheim and Eileen Farley for their assistance in compiling criminal history information, and to Matt Baretto at the University of Washington for providing the Hispanic Surname Analysis database. Thanks also to members of the Law, Societies & Justice workgroup (especially George Lovell, Rachel Cichowski, Carolyn Pinedo-Turnovsky, Angelina Godoy and Steve Herbert) for useful feedback and suggestions. Thanks also to several anonymous reviewers for their useful suggestions.

References

References

Adler, Rachel H (2006) “‘But They Claimed to be Police, Not la migra!’: The Interaction of Residency Status, Class, and Ethnicity in a (Post–PATRIOT Act) New Jersey Neighborhood,” 50 American Behavioral Scientist 48–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Admur, Spencer (2014) “How Local Governments are Hacking Immigration Reform.” The Atlantic, 13 May 2014. Available at: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/05/state-and-local-governments-make-their-own-immigration-reform/362823/Google Scholar
Beckett, Katherine, & Herbert, Steve (2010a) Banished: The New Social Control in Urban America. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Beckett, Katherine, & Herbert, Steve (2010b) “Penal Boundaries: Banishment and the Expansion of Punishment,” 35 Law and Social Inquiry 1–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beckett, Katherine, & Murakawa, Naomi (2012) “Mapping the Shadow Carceral State: Toward an Institutionally Capacious Approach to Punishment,” 16 Theoretical Criminology 221–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cade, Jason A. (2012) “The Plea Bargain Crisis for Noncitizens in Misdemeanor Court,” 34 Cardoza Law Rev. 1751–819.Google Scholar
Camayd-Freixas, Erik (2009) “Interpreting after the Largest ICE Raid in US History: A Personal Account,” 7 Latino Studies 7123–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chacón, Jennifer M. (2012) “Overcriminalizing Immigration,” 102 J. of Criminal Law and Criminology 613–52.Google Scholar
Chavez, Leo R (2008) The Latino Threat: Constructing Immigrants, Citizens, and the Nation. Palo Alto, California: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Clear, Todd (2007) “Impact of incarceration on community public safety and public health,” in Greifinger, Robert, ed., Improving Public Health through Correctional Health Care. New York: Springer. 13–24.Google Scholar
Coutin, Susan B (2011) “The Rights of Noncitizens in the United States,” 7 Annual Rev. of Law and Social Science 289–308.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cruz, Evelyn (2012) “Unearthing and Confronting the Social Skeletons of Immigration Status in Our Criminal Justice System,” in. Kubrin, C., & Zatz, M., eds., Punishing Immigrants: Policy, Politics and Injustice. New York: New York Univ. Press. 91–112.Google Scholar
Demuth, Stephen (2002) “The Effect of Citizenship Status on Sentencing Outcomes in Drug Cases,” 14 Federal Sentencing Reporter 271–5 (No. 5).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Devers, Lindsay (2011) Bail decisionmaking: Research Summary. Washington, DC.: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance.Google Scholar
Eagly, Ingrid (2010) “Prosecuting Immigration,” 104 Northwestern University Law Rev. 1281–360.Google Scholar
Eagly, Ingrid (2013) “Criminal Justice for Noncitizens: An Analysis of Variation in Local Enforcement,” 88 New York Univ. Law Rev. 1126–223.Google Scholar
Feeley, Malcom (1992) The Process is the Punishment: Handling Cases in a Lower Criminal Court. Paperback Edition with Foreword by Gusfield, J. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Freiberg, Arie (1987) “Reconceptualizing Sanctions,” 25 Criminology 223–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freiberg, Arie, & O'Malley, Pat (1984) “State Intervention and the Civil Offense.” 18 Law and Society Rev. 373–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freudenberg, Nicholas (2002) “Adverse Effects of U.S. Jail and Prison Policies on the Health and Well-Being of Women of Color,” 92 American J. of Public Health 1895–99.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Freudenberg, Nicholas, et al. (2008) “Coming Home from Jail: The Social and Health Consequences of Community Reentry for Women, Male Adolescents, and Their Families and Communities,” 98 American J. of Public Health S191–202 (Suppl 1).CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Frey, James H., & Fontana, Andrea (1991) “The Group Interview in Social Research,” 28 Social Science J. 175–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greene, Judith A. (2012) The Cost of Responding to Immigration Detainers in California: Preliminary Findings, August 2012. Available at: http://www.justicestrategies.org/publications/2012/cost-responding-immigration-detainers-california (accessed 4 April 2014).Google Scholar
Hagan, Jacqueline, Rodriguez, Nestor, & Castro, Brianna (2011) “Social Effects of Mass Deportations by the United States Government, 2000–2010,” 34 Ethnic and Racial Studies 1374–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris, Alexes (2007) “Diverting and Abdicating Judicial Discretion: Cultural, Political and Procedural Dynamics in California Juvenile Justice,” 41 Law and Society Rev. 387–428.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hartley, Richard D., & Armendariz, Luisa F. (2011) “Border Justice? Sentencing Federal Narcotics Offenders in Southwest Border Districts: A Focus on Citizenship,” 27 J. of Contemporary Criminal Justice 43–62 (No. 1).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Inda, Jonathan X., & Dowling, Julie A. (2013) “Introduction: Governing Migrant Illegality,” in Governing Immigration through Crime: A Reader. Palo Alto: Stanford Univ. Press. 1–22.Google Scholar
Kanstroom, Daniel (2007) Deportation Nation: Outsiders in American History. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kholi, Aarti, Markowitz, Peter L., & Chavez, Lisa (2011) Secure Communities by the Numbers: An Analysis of Demographics and Due Process. The Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Law and Policy, October.Google Scholar
Kirk, David S., et al. (2012) “The Paradox of Law Enforcement in Immigrant Communities,” 641 The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 79–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Legomsky, Stephen H (2007) “The New Path of Immigration Law: Asymmetric Incorporation of Criminal Justice Norms,” 64 Washington and Lee Law Rev. 469–529.Google Scholar
Light, Michael T. (2014) “The New Face of Legal Inequality: Noncitizens and Long-Term Trends in Sentencing Disparities across U.S. District Courts, 1992-2009,” 48 Law & Society Rev. 447–79 (No. 2).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Light, Michael T., Massoglia, Michael, & King, Ryan D. (2014) “Citizenship and Punishment: The Salience of National Membership in U.S. Criminal Courts,” 79 American Sociological Rev. 827–49.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Meissner, Dorris, et al. (2013) Immigration Enforcement in the United Stats: The Rise of a Formidable Machinery. Washington, DC: Migration Policy Institute.Google Scholar
Menjívar, Cecilia (2006) “Liminal Legality: Salvadoran and Guatemalan Immigrants' Lives in the United States,” 111 American J. of Sociology 999–1037.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Menjívar, Cecilia (2012) “Legal Violence: Immigration Law and the Lives of Central American Immigrants,” 117 American J. of Sociology 1380–421.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
National Immigration Forum (2011) Immigrants Behind Bars: How, Why, and How Much (March). Available at: http://www.immigrationforum.org/images/uploads/2011/Immigrants_in_Local_Jails.pdf (accessed 4 April 2014).Google Scholar
Perkins, Colby R. (1993) ‘‘Evaluating the Passel-Word Spanish Surname List: 1990 Decennial Census Post Enumeration Survey Results,’’ Population Division, Working Paper No. 4. U.S. Bureau of the Census.Google Scholar
Phillips, Mary T (2007) Bail, Detention and Non-Felony Case Outcomes, Research Briefs Series No. 14, New York: New York City Criminal Justice Agency, Inc.Google Scholar
Phillips, Mary T (2008) Bail, Detention and Felony Case Outcomes, Research Briefs Series No. 18, New York City Criminal Justice Agency, Inc.Google Scholar
Provine, Doris Marie, et al. (2012) “Growing Tensions between Civic Membership and Enforcement in the Devolution of Immigration Control,” in Kubrin, C., & Zatz, M., eds., Punishing Immigrants: Policy, Politics and Injustice, New York: New York Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Shahani, Aarti (2010) New York City Enforcement of Immigration Detainers: Preliminary Findings, October. Available at: http://www.justicestrategies.org/publications/2010/new-york-city-enforcement-immigration-detainers (accessed 4 April 2014).Google Scholar
Sklansky, David A. (2012) “Crime, Immigration, and Ad hoc Instrumentalism,” 15 New Criminal Law Rev. 157–223 (No. 2).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stumpf, Juliet (2006) “The Crimmigration Crisis: Immigrants, Crime, & Sovereign Power,” 56 American Univ. Law Rev. 367–419.Google Scholar
Stumpf, Juliet (2013) “Social Control and Justice: Crimmigration in the Age of Fear,” in Guia, M., Van Der Woude, M., & Van Der Leun, J., eds., Social Control and Justice: Crimmigration in the Age of Fear, The Hague: Eleven International Publishing.Google Scholar
Thompson, Ginger, & Cohen, Sarah (2014) “More Deportation Follow Minor Crimes, Records Show,” The New York Times, 6 April. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/07/us/more-deportations-follow-minor-crimes-data-shows.html?emc=eta1&_r=0 (accessed 4 April 2014).Google Scholar
Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) (2013) Who Are the Targets of ICE Detainers? 20 February Syracuse Univ. Available at: http://trac.syr.edu/immigration/reports/310/ (accessed 4 April 2014).Google Scholar
Tyler, Tom, & Boeckmann, Robert J. (1997) “Three Strikes and You're Out, But Why? The Psychology of Public Support for Punishing Rule Breakers,” 31 Law and Society Rev. 237–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
U.S. Census Bureau. 2012. American Community Survey, 1-Year Estimates. S0501: Selected Characteristics of the Native and Foreign-Born Populations.Google Scholar
Varsanyi, Monica W., et al. (2012) “A Multilayered Jurisdictional Patchwork: Immigration Federalism in the United States,” 34 Law & Policy 138–58 (No. 2).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vuong, Linh, et al. (2010) “The Extravagance of Imprisonment Revisited,” 94 Judicature 70–82 (No. 20).Google Scholar
Welch, Michael (2002) Detained: Immigration Laws and the Expanding I.N.S. Jail Complex. Philadelphia: Temple Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Welch, Michael (2012) “Panic, Risk, Control: Conceptualizing Threats in a Post 9/11 Society,” in Kubrin, C., & Zatz, M., eds., Punishing Immigrants: Policy, Politics and Injustice, New York: New York Univ. Press. 17–40.Google Scholar
Western, Bruce (2006) Punishment and Inequality. New York: Russell Sage.Google Scholar
Wolfe, Scott E., Pyrooz, David C., & Spohn, Cassia C. (2011) “Unraveling the Effect of Offender Citizenship on Federal Sentencing Outcomes,” 40 Social Science Research 349–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Word, David L., & Colby Perkins, R. Jr (1996) “Building a Spanish Surname List for the 1990s (A New Approach to an Old Problem).” Technical Working Paper No.13. Washington, DC: Population Division, U.S. Census Bureau.Google Scholar
Wu, Jawjeong, & DeLone, Miriam A. (2012) “Revisiting the Normal Crime and Liberation Hypotheses: Citizenship Status and Unwarranted Disparity,” 37 Criminal Justice Rev. 214–38 (No. 2).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Statutes Cited

Evidentiary Sufficiency, Revised Code of Washington (RCW) 9.94A.411.Google Scholar
Illegal Immigration Reform and Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) of 1996, Division C of Pub.L. 104–208, 110 Stat. 3009-546Google Scholar
Immigration and Nationality Act (INA),Google Scholar
Inadmissible Aliens, 8 U.S. Code § 1182Google Scholar
Controlled Substance Violations, 8 USC 1182(a)(2)(A)(i)(II)Google Scholar
Crimes Involving Moral Turpitude, 8 USC 1182(a)(2)(A)(i)(I)Google Scholar
Deportable Aliens, 8 U.S. Code § 1227Google Scholar
Crimes of Moral Turpitude, 8 USC 1227(a)(2)(A)(i);Google Scholar
Controlled Substances, 8 USC 1227(a)(2)(B)(i)Google Scholar
Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) of 1986, Pub.L. 99–603, 100 Stat. 3445Google Scholar