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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Tears and More Tears: The Humanitarian Path to Citizenship A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology by Sarah Morando Lakhani 2013 Copyright by Sarah Morando Lakhani 2013 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Tears and More Tears: The Humanitarian Path to Citizenship by Sarah Morando Lakhani Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology University of California, Los Angeles, 2013 Professor Stefan Timmermans, Co-Chair Professor Roger Waldinger, Co-Chair This dissertation analyzes the legalization process as experienced by immigrant crime victims and their attorneys in Los Angeles, California. Drawing on over three years of ethnographic and qualitative research, I chart the process from the time undocumented immigrants decide they want to regularize their status through a humanitarian remedy and contact attorneys at legal non- profit organizations; through the case development phase, when immigrants collaborate with attorneys to produce compelling petitions for legal standing; to the period of application results and beyond, documenting the consequences of approvals and rejections for immigrants and their families. I also consider immigration lawyers’ paths into their profession and examine how their career motivations shape their legal practice. Empirically, I focus on the experiences of female Latin American immigrants as they pursue U Visa status and the attorneys they collaborate with. Created in 2000 through the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act, the U Visa is a ii temporary legal status for immigrant victims of violent crime that offers a path to permanent residency and U.S. citizenship. This project makes three interrelated contributions to research on immigration, legal mobilization, and legal decision-making. First, I advance scholarship on international migration and immigration policy by building on conceptualizations of immigration control that center on policy interpretation and implementation by mid-level actors and institutions (Armenta, 2011; Gilboy, 1991; Marrow, 2009). By analyzing how lawyers broker between immigrants and the state and between immigrants and other mid-level intermediaries such as police officers, employers, and social services providers, I configure immigration attorneys as both agents and critics of law who simultaneously reinforce and challenge official and unofficial legal notions (Coutin, 2000). In drawing attention to attorneys’ complex roles in the application of immigration policies, I show how exclusionary aspects of control characteristic of the contemporary immigration legal regime can filter into efforts intended to benefit immigrants. Second, this dissertation demonstrates critical ways in which law shapes immigrants’ lives. Research has examined undocumented immigrants’ attempts to acquire socioeconomic resources from a position outside the law (Abrego, 2008; Gleeson, 2009), but I further this agenda by exploring immigrants’ endeavors to access benefits associated with legal standing. By analyzing the signaling mechanism involved in converting a legal identity to concrete resources, I illustrate how a political and social climate of migration control combined with a legal context characterized by the multiplication of anomalous statuses between citizen and foreigner produces stratification. Lastly, this dissertation extends the law in action paradigm (Pound, 1910). While most studies of law in action have analyzed how legal actors tailor idiosyncratic details of iii discrete cases to existing precedents, I consider how law emerges within a confining legal framework that is at the same time not completely institutionalized. iv The dissertation of Sarah Morando Lakhani is approved. Rubén Hernández-León Hiroshi Motomura Stefan Timmermans, Committee Co-Chair Roger Waldinger, Committee Co-Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2013 v For Amit vi Table of Contents List of Tables……………………………………………………………………………………viii List of Images…………………………………………………………………………………….ix Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………………………..x Vita………………………………………………………………………………………………xiv Chapter One: Introduction………………………………………………………………………...1 Chapter Two: Immigrant Screening on the Legal Frontlines……………………………………35 Chapter Three: The Legal Translation and Documentation of Immigrant Abuse……………….83 Chapter Four: Producing Immigrant Victims’ “Right” to Legal Status and the Management of Legal Uncertainty……………………………………………………………………………….107 Chapter Five: Trajectories and Manifestations of Legal Idealism……………………………...144 Chapter Six: Legitimacy Within Limits………………………………………………………...180 Chapter Seven: Conclusion……………………………………………………………………..213 Methodological Appendix……………………………………………………………………...218 References………………………………………………………………………………………233 vii List of Tables Table 1. U Visa Applications, Approvals, and Denials, Fiscal Years 2009- 8 2012 Table 2. Demographic and Legal Characteristics of Immigrant Interviewees 26 viii List of Images Image 1. Photograph of Leticia and Citlali Embracing 167 ix ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I try to make sure my academic and personal mentors always know how much I appreciate them, but I welcome the opportunity to thank them in a more public way too. I would like to express gratitude to Tomás Jiménez and April Linton for cultivating my interest in immigration as an undergraduate at UC San Diego, and for encouraging me to a pursue a Ph.D. in sociology. Next, I would like to thank my advisors at UCLA. Stefan Timmermans supported my dissertation research from its inception. His sociological prowess enhanced my approach to ethnographic fieldwork and data analysis, and improved my ability to theorize about what I was observing. Roger Waldinger elevated the quality of my scholarship and my confidence in it through his immigration insights and continuous support. Both Stefan and Roger enthusiastically read and re-read parts of this dissertation and other work over the years, significantly sharpening my end products. Rubén Hernández-León had faith in my abilities from the very first month of graduate school and helped launch my Master’s research in Dalton. Hiroshi Motomura reminded me of the importance of asking (and being able to answer) the “So What?” question, preventing me from losing the forest for the trees. He was always available to answer my immigration law questions and ensured that the legal aspects of my work made sense. I would also like to thank the individuals who participated in my dissertation research and graciously shared their personal and professional lives with me. Their trust facilitated this project. The UCLA Department of Sociology provided excellent substantive and methodological training. I am particularly appreciative of the Program for International Migration, which organized engaging talks and discussions and served as a vibrant intellectual community-within- x a-community for those of us at UCLA working on immigration issues. I also appreciate the faculty, fellows, associated graduate students, and staff at the American Bar Foundation for providing an academic home and a stimulating intellectual environment during the final stages of writing. I was honored and encouraged by the institutions that saw promise in my research and provided generous financial support, including the American Association of University Women, the American Bar Foundation, the Employment Instability, Family Well-Being, and Social Policy Network at the University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration, the University of California Institute for Mexico and the United States, the UCLA Center for the Study of Women, the UCLA Graduate Division, the UCLA Institute of American Cultures and Chicano Studies Research Center, and the UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment. In the last few years, I have been fortunate to expand my mentor network beyond the UCLA Department of Sociology. After meeting me only briefly in 2012, both Cecilia Menjívar and Leisy Abrego were receptive to my interest in collaborating with them. Working with Cecilia and Leisy enriched my academic life during the final year of dissertation writing and was a source of intellectual inspiration. Susan Bibler Coutin, whose work itself was an incredible resource throughout the dissertation research and writing process, personally responded to my requests for advice in 2010 as I was grappling with ethical issues in fieldwork, and again in 2011, when I began writing the dissertation. She formally became a mentor through my fellowship at the American Bar Foundation in 2012. During the 2012-2013 academic year, she read chapter drafts and offered smart critiques. Carol Heimer’s mentorship at the American Bar Foundation was instrumental in improving chapter 4 of this dissertation as I prepared it for xi publication in Law & Social Inquiry. While finishing the dissertation from Chicago, my friends and UCLA colleagues Hyeyoung Oh and Pamela Prickett encouraged me with promises of frozen yogurt upon my return to Los Angeles for graduation. Special thanks also to Amada Armenta, whose friendship and mentorship in graduate school was invaluable. I am eternally grateful to my family for their intellectual and emotional support of my graduate school endeavors. They cheered me on through each step, sharing in my joy at the completion of every milestone. My sisters, Amanda and Hannah Morando, never went too long without a visit, lifting my spirits and recharging my batteries. My father, James Morando, listened patiently as I