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J. Celeste Lay, E-Signed Dr I.C.E.’D OUT: THE CRIMINALIZATION OF IMMIGRATION IN THE UNITED STATES AN HONORS THESIS SUBMITTED ON THE NINTH DAY OF MAY, 2020 TO THE DEPARTMENTS OF AFRICANA STUDIES AND POLITICAL SCIENCE IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE HONORS PROGRAM OF NEWCOMB TULANE COLLEGE TULANE UNIVERSITY FOR THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF ARTS WITH HONORS IN AFRICANA STUDIES AND POLITICAL SCIENCES BY JUHARAH WORKU APPROVED: ___________________ Dr. Selamawit Terrefe Co- Director of Thesis ___________________J. Celeste Lay, e-signed Dr. J. Celeste Lay Co- Director of Thesis _________________ Dr. I. Carolina Caballero Third Reader ii Juharah Merima Worku I.C.E.’D Out: The Criminalization of Immigration in the United States (Dr. Selamawit Terrefe, English and Africana Studies; Dr. J. Celeste Lay, Political Science) Abstract: This thesis is a close examination of the criminalization of immigration in the United States. This work asserts that there is an increasing hybridization of immigration law enforcement and criminal law enforcement mechanisms, resulting in the criminalization of immigration. Moreover, this work seeks to place great emphasis on the afterlife of racial slavery in the criminalization of immigration. The enforcement of brutal laws during racial slavery classified enslaved Africans as property, not persons unless they were accused of a crime. In the United States legal system, the only aspect of their personhood that was considered legitimate was their capacity to commit crime. I argue that laws from this same time period also define citizenship to exclude African descended peoples. Once criminality is taken under consideration, this complicates the access that descendants of racial slavery and Black immigrants have to legal protections, including the rights enumerated to citizens in citizenship. Chapter One focuses on the transatlantic slave trade as a point of origin for explicitly racially coded laws to control domestic movement patterns due to the social and legal construction of criminality as it is racially constructed to be Black. Chapter Two evaluates laws that define citizenship, and asserts that citizenship is a coveted form of property inaccessible to Black people. Chapter Three closely examines the plight of Haitian asylum seekers and asserts that immigration and criminal enforcement are closely intertwined following U.S. immigration policy in this era, and concludes urging further consideration towards the lack of access Black people have to legal protections, such as those outlined in domestic and international human rights law. iii Acknowledgements This work is honor of my father, Worku Bulto, a man who lived so boldly and loved so deeply. Your courage to cross borders and worlds has defined my life. Thank you to my mother, Merima Geresu – your strong convictions have made me the outspoken woman I am. I am honored to have both of your names in my own; you are inextricably part of my legacy. To my sister, Hanan Worku, my role model - I am thankful for your mentorship, your unconditional support and love. To the community that raised me – of aunts and uncles, cousins and friends – thank you for nurturing and inspiring me. To Cheyenne Smith, Morgan Smith, Batelihem Ogba, Nicole Oshima, Gabrielle Dunham, Simran Jain, Shahamat Uddin - you brilliantly theorize about our experiences and have ignited a fire in me to do the same. The obstacles we face have propelled me to question and demand more of our social and political systems, and I thank you for the ways you empower me daily. To everyone in my Posse, thank you. Our bond has survived from Los Angeles to New Orleans and back again. Five years have passed, and I remain humbled to be in the same league of scholars and leaders as you all. To my Posse mentors, past and present, thank you for your kindness and wisdom over the years. To the rest of my Tulane family - Jeremy Baudy, Sonali Chadha, Eva Dils, Emily Fornof, Korey Finnie, Sarah Jones, Margaret Munthali, Canela López, Maddy Lowry, Rebecca Paul, Jewell Prim, Sarah Medina, Clifford Soloway– and the many other friends I cherish, one page simply could not suffice. You have left a meaningful impact on my life that will extend far beyond our time at Tulane. To the faculty and staff who made this project possible – Dr. Paula Booke, Dr. Carolina Caballero and Dr. J. Celeste Lay – thank you for your critical feedback and engagement. Thank you Dr. Selamawit Terrefe - you have opened my mind to a world of critical Black theory and in doing so have undoubtedly changed my life for the better. Your work as academics and members of the Tulane community is a source of inspiration for me, and I am grateful to have learned from you over the years. Lastly, I would like to acknowledge both the people fearing the threat of detention or incarceration, and those detained or incarcerated in the midst of a global pandemic. I write this to honor you, and to call upon anyone engaging with this project to fight for your liberation. iv Table of Contents Introduction - 1 Chapter One - On Slavery, Criminality and its Relation to U.S. Immigration Policy - 10 Chapter Two - Citizenship as Property – 21 Chapter Three – The Criminalization of Haitian Immigration - 35 1 Introduction In January 2018, CNN reported that during an immigration policy meeting amongst his administration, President Donald Trump expressed frustration regarding immigration from immigrants classified under Temporary Protected Status into the United States by questioning, “Why do we want all these people from ‘shithole countries’ coming here?” Additionally, when Haiti became a topic of discussion, he responded, ‘Why do we need more Haitians? Take them out’.1 Temporary Protected Status, according to the Department of Homeland Security, was extended to immigrant populations if there were, “conditions in the country that temporarily prevent the country's nationals from returning safely, or in certain circumstances, where the country is unable to handle the return of its nationals adequately." These provisions were outlined within the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 in order to establish domestic procedures to address refugee migration that aligned with the United Nations Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees of 1967 to which the United States is a signatory.2 Temporary Protected Status marks one of the first U.S. policies extended to Haitian immigrants seeking asylum in the wake of the devastating 2010 earthquake. Unfortunately, Trump’s comments do not reflect the first instance that Haitian asylum seekers were met with outright hostility in the United States. Beginning in the 1970’s, there was an increase in unauthorized immigration from Haiti due to political and economic instability in the region. Beginning in the 1970’s, there was an increase in unauthorized immigration from 1 Eli Watkins and Abby Phillip. “Trump Slurs Immigrants from 'Shithole Countries'.” CNN, Cable News Network, January 12, 2018, https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/11/politics/immigrants-shithole- countries-trump/index.html. 2 USCIS, “Temporary Protected Status.” January 7, 2015, https://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/temporary-protected-status. 2 Haiti due to political and economic instability in the region. Out of approximately 50,000 petitions for asylum filed by Haitian people from 1972-1980, fewer than 100 were granted. After having braved a journey from the Caribbean to Florida’s coast, the United States denied their applications for asylum and forcibly repatriated them. The government attributed this inhumane response to a variety of reasons, ranging from blaming asylum seekers for a lack of proper documentation to verify eligibility for political asylum, to accusations of falsifying accounts of political persecution for financial gain. 3 Thus, Trump’s comments appear to align with explicitly xenophobic attitudes directed towards not only Haitian asylum seekers, but towards many immigrants, regardless of their documentation status. In a media analysis of three major national news magazines’ articles - Time, Newsweek, and U.S. News and World Report, political scientists Dr. Emily Farris and Dr. Heather Mohamed explore how the media represents immigrants by analyzing selections from these publications and the way they frame immigrants and immigration.4 Their research centers representation of Latin American immigrants in the media as skewed towards building a “threat narrative” by focusing on economic and societal concerns - specifically crime and “illegality” - disproportionately.5 This has been described as the “illegality trap,” or the deployment of narratives that implicitly or explicitly limit discussions of immigration solely to undocumented immigration.6 Within this trap, news and other media outlets fail to shift away from focusing on criminality and illegality with respect to the actions of Latin American immigrants, which 3 Carl Lindskoog, Detain and Punish: Haitian Refugees and the Rise of the World's Largest Immigration Detention System, (University Press of Florida, 2018), 16 4 Emily M. Farris and Heather Silber Mohamed, "Picturing immigration: how the media criminalizes immigrants," Politics, Groups, and Identities 6, no. 4 (2018): 815. https://doi.org/10.1080/21565503.2018.1484375 5 Farris, Mohamed, “Picturing immigration,” 816. 6 Michael Jones-Correa and Els de Graauw, "The illegality trap: The politics of immigration & the lens of illegality." Daedalus 142, no. 3 (2013): 186. https://www.jstor.org/stable/43297259 3 contributes to their criminalization in immigration policies.
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