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Feature Abolishing the Toxic “Tough-on-Immigration” Paradigm

Felipe Hernández

“The greatest purveyor of violence in the Introduction world today [is] my own government.” – In October 2018, a caravan of about 7,000 Dr. Martin Luther King (1967)1 people from Central America seeking ref- uge from extortion, state and gang violence, Abstract femicide, and the effects of climate change This article contextualizes and examines were violently met with hundreds of Federal the tough-on-immigration paradigm that has Mexican Police forces on the Guatemala– driven both Republican and Democratic Mexico border armed with tactical gear immigration policies. First, this article traces and training largely provided by the United the evolution of the sociopolitical construct States.2,3 As if preparing for war, Trump mobi- of the undeserving criminal , a non- lized nearly 6,000 troops on the US–Mexico White person deemed a threat to White border, issued an executive order authorizing free personhood, to demonstrate how this military personnel to use “force [including construct legitimizes tough-on-immigration lethal force, where necessary],”4 and issued policy prescriptions. Second, the article a proclamation suspending asylum rights for demonstrates how elected offcials since the all people on the caravan because “the mass Reagan administration have crafted immi- migration of aliens with no basis for admission gration policies solely through the tough-on- . . . precipitated a crisis.”5 When the caravan immigration paradigm as a tactic to obtain arrived at San Ysidro, Customs and Border political power. Third, this article illustrates Patrol (CBP) shut down the border and fred how both political parties leading up to the rubber bullets and tear gas to prevent them 2020 presidential election continue to pre- from crossing. Meanwhile, on the US side of serve the tough-on-immigration paradigm the border, nearly 15,000 children and thou- even in opposition to the Trump adminis- sands of adults, a majority of whom are from tration. Finally, the article proposes a new Central America, were held in cages, often up reparative justice paradigm for immigration to 20 people in one, causing abuse, trauma, policy that follows the lead of organizers and and the deaths of two children.6,7,8 In the back- those directly impacted in order to address the drop, the government was shut down over root causes of human displacement. Trump’s border wall by falsely declaring that

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Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3444515 immigrants were fooding the border bringing center of this toxic cycle are the millions of crime, drugs, and violence.9 human beings whose dreams, hopes, and bod- While Trump’s actions against immigrants ies are bruised, abused, and disposed as if they have been overwhelming, they are not new. were meaningless byproducts of the law-and- Rather, they stem from the toxic cycle of order system of subordination.21,22 tough-on-immigration policies built across Historically, despite state repression coali- multiple administrations. This cycle uses tions of multiethnic, immigrant, and working- state-sanctioned violence such as military class peoples, particularly along border states, force, caging, and policing to separate families immigrants have successfully organized to and control displaced people as an ordinary challenge the law-and-order system to se- practice to maintain the dominant law-and- cure labor, immigrant, and civil rights and order system of subordination to divide social liberties.23 Such movements, often led by and political mobility on a global hierarchy by women and queer folx of color, have recog- race, class, gender, sexuality, and citizenship nized that struggles against prisons, police, status.10,11 The tough-on-immigration toxic state violence, capitalism, imperialism, and cycle, a global phenomenon, begins with the military occupations are inextricably linked false—but powerfully persuasive—dehuman- izing narrative that “illegal (criminal) aliens,” The tough-on-immigration toxic cycle… particularly from non-European “shithole” begins with the false—but powerfully countries, are invaders threatening the eco- persuasive—dehumanizing narrative nomic, social, moral, and political interests that “illegal (criminal) aliens,” …are of the country’s citizens. Once designated as threats and undesired populations, immi- invaders threatening the economic, social, grants are systematically linked to criminality moral, and political interests of to facilitate their permanent exploitation and the country’s citizens. marginalization, positioned against a strug- gling poor White class.12 This positioning to the global immigrant struggle.24,25 Yet the then moves those with political power, i.e., dominant discourse for immigration reform is poor White class, to legitimize the use of the often presented as a binary that supports the police, prisons, and the criminal legal sys- deserving immigrant while punishing the tem to control or eliminate the “criminal undeserving “criminal alien” via increased alien.”13,14,15 Throughout this entire process, border security and detention policies.26 Such corporate shareholders, politicians, and social binary organizing has led to some temporary, elites reap massive benefts from investing in and important, wins, such as the Deferred the law-and-order system that punishes and re- Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) pro- moves the “criminal alien” as a means to reg- gram, the 1986 Immigration Reform and ulate a stable global supply of labor to exploit Control Act, stopping the 2005 Sensenbrenner from predominantly non-White people with Immigration Bill (H.R. 4437), suspending little to no legal and political powers to resist, Sessions’s zero-tolerance policy, sanctuary i.e., factory workers, farm laborers, and domes- bills, and various state wins. However, as legal tic workers.16 In doing so, elite corporate and scholar Angelica Chazaro recently outlined, political classes facilitate a global social strati- the binary framing has also widened who fcation by creating a race to the bottom and qualifes as the undeserving “criminal alien” social death of undesirable groups through and strengthened the deportation machine.27 state violence like private prisons or mili- Today, both parties operate solely within the tarized borders, for example.17,18,19,20 At the dominant binary evident by their immigration

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Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3444515 policy proposals: both call for tougher bor- protect and advance all economic, civil, and der security, more funds for detention and political interests of White citizens while de- deportation, and prioritized removals of the nying, or at the expense of, noncitizens (i.e., criminal alien, despite rejecting President non-Whites).32,33 Rooted in the historical Trump’s demand for a physical border wall.28 practice of European conquest-violence and Ultimately, as immigrant-rights groups like under the doctrine of Manifest Destiny, the United We Dream have recognized, tough-on- myth of Anglo-Saxon superiority, embedded immigration politics only marginally help the in US citizenship, was created by political small portion of immigrants characterized as and economic elites to convince a majority deserving at the expense of feeding more and poor White populace that they were entitled more people designated as criminal aliens to the lands, and fruits from those lands, they through the deportation machine.29 occupied by eliminating Native Americans This article has three aims. First, it traces and non-White Mexican peoples—both the evolution of the sociopolitical construct of characterized as sub-species invaders who the undeserving criminal alien to demonstrate were inherently vicious and criminal without how it serves as the basis for the tough-on- any right to land—as well as by subjecting immigration paradigm and, thus, toxic Black people to slavery and bondage.34,35,36 immigration policies. Second, this article Accordingly, in 1798, Congress passed the demonstrates how the tough-on-immigration Alien and Sedition Acts, which made aliens paradigm continues to shape immigration “liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured, policy across both parties today. Third, this and removed” during wartime under orders of article calls for the abolition of the tough-on- the president—a precursor to Trump’s emer- immigration paradigm and highlights the gency powers.37 By the 1820s, as the United calls of organizers for a new reparative justice States occupied western Mexican and Native paradigm. This new paradigm must reconcile lands, US settlers developed a complex and how the US law-and-order capitalist system proftable system of leased convict labor in continues to produce mass global human which those labeled as noncitizens or aliens, displacement, violence, and instability, pri- overwhelmingly Native, African, mulatto, and marily from communities of color in the mestizo people, were imprisoned on public global south, for exploitative labor practices charges (e.g., sleeping on the street, requiring as well as how the criminal and immigration public assistance) or as enemies of war. This legal systems are used as a social death “purga- included criminalizing habits of immigrants tory” for people designated as undesirable or that were deemed to threaten White people, criminal aliens.30 like the of 1882, which criminalized opium smoking on the notion Constructing the Threat of the Alien that it threatened the moral system of Whites Invader but also as a tactic to protect White laborers.38 In 1790, as a European settler-colonial state, Once imprisoned, criminal aliens were forced Congress established citizenship as “free to build and maintain new Western cities.39 White persons of good character” who had As more White citizens occupied these lands, resided in the for at least fve entire classes of people who posed a challenge years.31 This defnition was designed to ex- to this system were labeled as criminals and/ clude Native Americans and Africans who or aliens and excluded from citizenship and were freed or enslaved as well as Asian and state protection.40,41 This included anarchists, Latinx peoples, all deemed threats to freed communists and/or socialists, the poor and il- White personhood. The state’s role was to literate, racial minorities, LGBTQ people, and

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Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3444515 laborers from China, Southeast Asia, India, root causes of drug addiction. During Cold and the Middle East.42 War efforts, the United States intervened in At the turn of the 20th century, as the grow- Latin America, the Middle East, and East and ing capitalist society required more bodies to Southeast Asia to advance US corporate inter- exploit for proft, vast numbers of immigrant est (then extracting wealth to build White US groups were granted admission to fll the cities) through supporting brutal dictatorships necessary role for White citizens to achieve a and police and prison infrastructures and con- newly fabled American Dream mobility into a trolling fnancial and monetary policies that White middle class subsidized by high tax rates created the conditions for civil wars, gang/ and redistributive policies.43,44,45,46 Specifcally, cartel violence, human rights violations, the created restrictive corrupt governance, and human displace- racial quotas, ensuring that over 90 percent of ment.54,55,56,57 As displaced people sought new arrivals were White Europeans, prevented refuge in the United States, the tough-on- immigrants from the global south countries to immigration paradigm became the ordinary enter—with the large exception of noncitizen state practice cemented into law with the goal Mexican laborers—and created the border of creating a permanent class of human capital patrol to deport non-White immigrants through to exploit to sustain US capitalist and imperi- nearly 100 years of brutality and impunity.47,48 alist goals.58,59,60 Accordingly, the United States subsidized the In all, the criminal alien invader is a ra- construction of White-fight cities for White cialized sociopolitical construct to facilitate citizens from the profts generated by exploited subjugating non-White immigrant bodies.61,62 immigrant, Black, and Native labor while also This construct is the foundation for the creating local borders that segregated immi- tough-on-immigration paradigm that causes grants and non-White people to guarantee immigrants to experience three major subju- their legal and physical exclusion from the gations: (1) they experience poverty, violence, American Dream.49,50 As demonstrated by the and displacement in their home countries and , the largely created by interventionist policies that constant threat of physical removal, or elimi- serve capitalist interests; (2) once forced to nation, was the main state strategy to control relocate to the United States through violent an immigrant labor force and prevent labor routes, immigrant labor is exploited to build unionizing.51 When immigrant groups were wealth for predominantly White middle and deemed undesirable or a threat to Whiteness, upper classes, while immigrants are system- political and economic elites—some of atically denied the fruits of their labor; (3) if whom were openly segregationist and White deemed unnecessary, immigrants are vilifed supremacist—characterized immigrants as for the economic, cultural, and social woes hyper-violent, diseased, drug addicted, and of the United States as a method to forcibly criminal. This weaponized racial animus and remove them and to draw attention away economic instability to stir a panic of White from how governance structures and poli- extinction and, thus, legitimize state con- cies overwhelmingly serve an elite class that trol or elimination of the criminal alien.52,53 pit working-class people against one another Specifcally, the War on Drugs, created by the in a global race to the bottom.63,64 Today, this Nixon administration in the 1960s, masterfully is best exemplifed by Amazon, the fastest- developed a massive military/police, prison, growing and one of the most proftable and legal apparatus to control/eliminate the companies in the world, whose business non-White criminal alien under the veil of model relies on exploitative labor practices national security while never addressing the of undocumented immigrant and temporary

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Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3444515 low-income workers worldwide while also de- manding mass government corporate welfare The paradigm is sustained by two that drains public resources intended to help major forces: (1) a nihilistic capitalist the poor and investing millions to deport im- system that influences the political process migrants, prevent workers from unionizing, to provide a steady stream of vulnerable and segregate cities.65,66,67,68,69 non- citizen people to exploit for profit and (2) a two-party system that amasses The Tough-on-Immigration Paradigm political power by appealing to the Trump’s “Make America Great Again” “forgotten” free White person presidential campaign was a logical exten- sion of centuries of the same law-and-order politics—specifcally, the 1950s brand of by appealing to the “forgotten” free White conservatism.70 Staying true to the principles person by promising that they will achieve of Manifest Destiny, Trump painted America the fabled American Dream—built by the as being invaded by Mexicans who were “rap- “deserving” immigrant.75,76,77 ists, criminals,” and responsible for America’s Reaganomics, IRCA, and IIRIRA economic demise and positioned himself as its Following decades of cyclical economic only savior.71 He then enlisted his voters—the crises, Reaganomics revitalized the law-and- “forgotten [White] citizen”—to join him in order system by providing mass subsidies to the war to save America, build a wall, and reap multinational corporations and increasing the benefts of their future wins.72 Leading military and border patrol for interventions up to the 2018 midterm as his voters strug- in Latin America and border wars against gled fnancially, despite a $1.5 trillion welfare immigrants. Reagan’s goal was to extract subsidy for the rich, Trump and Republicans wealth globally, through multinational cor- reignited the threat narrative, manufacturing porate sharecropping, and redistribute a small a crisis that Central Americans were criminals percentage of profts to “forgotten” White “invad[ing] the US” to drain public resources citizens.78,79 However, in a race to the bot- and vote for Democrats.73 Invoking the spirit of tom, Reaganomics led to mass wage cuts/ the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, Trump vowed stagnation and job insecurity through anti- to declare a national emergency to construct a union initiatives that positioned immigrants wall that would secure America by apprehend- to replace workers for increasingly low-quality ing and removing immigrants. jobs while destabilizing Latin American and While Trump represents an explicit use of South Asian countries, causing mass displace- the tough-on-immigration paradigm, the tactic ment.80,81 In response to mass displacement, of rallying up voters by stirring fear that crim- immigrant rights groups called for compre- inal aliens are invading to harm the United hensive immigration reform. As a result, the States is not new. Historically, the criminal Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) alien threat has been used as a persuasive po- provided amnesty to three million “deserving” litical tool by both parties to pass draconian undocumented immigrants with no more than tough-on-immigration measures harming three misdemeanors, such as drug offenses or all immigrants.74 The paradigm is sustained public intoxication, or a felony with proof they by two major forces: (1) a nihilistic capitalist resided in the United States since 1982.82,83 system that infuences the political process IRCA also established that immigrants who to provide a steady stream of vulnerable non- would be public charges, meaning people citizen people to exploit for proft and (2) a who could become “primarily dependent on two-party system that amasses political power the government for subsistence,” be denied

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Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3444515 legal status.84 Concurrently, the law strength- people who have committed crimes who are ened border security, expanded border patrol illegal immigrants.”93,94 Clinton delivered by powers, made it illegal to hire undocumented signing the Reform and laborers, and expanded the “illegal” category Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) in to all those who entered after 1986—over six 1996, which created pro- million people.85 ceedings, expanded mandatory detention for From 1980 to 1996, as Republicans gained more offenses (including nonviolent drug more seats from Democrats, particularly in offenses), increased border patrol, reduced southern border states, Reagan established the welfare benefts available to immigrants, modern legal and political architecture of the restricted asylum procedures, and established tough-on-immigration paradigm, often veiled procedures to verify an employee’s immigra- within the War on Drugs. This became the tion status.95 Notably, IIRIRA created the dominant political tactic for both parties to 287(g) program, which allowed local police to obtain power from a base of White voters while enforce immigration law and set the founda- serving corporate interest.86,87 For example, tion SB 1070 in , SB 4 in , and George H.W. Bush signed the Immigration Georgia House Bill 87, all notorious for racially Act of 1990, which prioritized admission to profling Latinx people.96 IIRIRA, which was deserving high-skilled laborers who could heavily lobbied by private interests, ultimately contribute to economic development while passed with bipartisan support because it stiffening border security, expanding border included language that further criminalized patrol, and immigration prisons. Similarly, in and deported immigrants.97,98 Rep. Lamar 1994, California passed Proposition 187 with Smith (R-Texas), a staunch anti-immigrant a multiethnic coalition that banned undoc- conservative, lauded IIRIRA because it umented immigrants from accessing public ensured that “the forgotten Americans—the services and required that Californians report citizens who obey the law, pay their taxes, and anyone suspected of being undocumented.88,89 seek to raise their children in safety—will be The nativist campaign blamed immigrants protected from the criminals and terrorists for California’s economic troubles to divert who want to prey on them.”99 Later, Clinton attention from years of corporate subsidies and similarly boasted: “We must not tolerate illegal tax cuts for the wealthy, which led to historic immigration. Since 1992, we have increased cuts to public services.90,91 Proposition 187 our Border Patrol by over 35%; deployed un- was used by wealthy elites to “terrorize the derground sensors, infrared night scopes and low-wage workforce [overwhelmingly Latinx] encrypted radios; built miles of new fences; and into accepting even worse working conditions installed massive amounts of new lighting.”100 and even lower wages” because they could War on Terror and Obama, “Deporter in not unionize, know their rights, or demand Chief” better work conditions with the threat of After September 11, a bipartisan Congress deportation.92 and President Bush expanded the racializa- Building from Reagan’s welfare cuts and tion of the criminal alien to include Arab and national nativist sentiment, Bill Clinton cam- Muslim communities. Congress ratcheted up paigned on a tough-on-crime platform to win state surveillance, which included a manda- over moderates and nativists in California, tory registration tracking system,101 border mili- stating that he promised to “stiffen[ ] border tarization, expanded immigration detention to patrol, . . . sanctions on employers who know- black sites, and created the largest federal police ingly hire illegal immigrants, . . . get illegal force: Immigration and Customs Enforcement immigrants out of the workforce, [and] deport (ICE).102,103 The criminal alien invader now

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Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3444515 legally included anyone suspected of terrorism or threats to national security and expanded the Obama earned the label of “deporter-in- executive branch’s power to neutralize them.104 chief” by leading the most deportations In the backdrop, Bush instituted mass tax cuts and by increasing prisons and militarized to the wealthy and sought to provide a steady borders, particularly between Mexico stream of cheap labor from immigrants. In a and Guatemala State of Union in 2008, Bush stated: “America needs to secure our borders—and with your help, my administration is taking steps to do Obama earned the label of “deporter-in-chief” so. We’re increasing worksite enforcement, de- by leading the most deportations and by ploying fences and advanced technologies to increasing prisons and militarized borders, stop illegal crossings . . . .Yet we also need to particularly between Mexico and Guatemala.112 acknowledge that we will never fully secure our A Global Paradigm border until we create a lawful way for foreign US foreign policies and politicians have ac- workers to come here and support our econ- tively exported the tough-on-immigration omy. This will take pressure off the border and toxic cycle, often folded into drug, trade, allow law enforcement to concentrate on those and security policies.113 In Europe, both bur- who mean us harm.”105 geoning wealth inequality and US/European When President Obama entered offce, interventions in the Middle East—with leg- he had virtually unchecked powers to further acies of colonization—have led to mass civil expand the tough-on-immigration paradigm wars and regional instability, causing hu- at home and abroad in light of more displace- man displacement and migration to Europe ment people and unaccompanied children through deadly routes.114 Because of the high migrating to the United States, particularly demand to enter Europe illegally, traffcking from Central America, feeing civil wars, gang cartels have risen across Europe, leading to violence, and poverty largely caused by US abuses and death.115 However, state responses interventions. Obama declared a crisis and developed within a tough-on-immigration campaigned on a “felons not families” strat- paradigm, from rightwing and moderate neo- egy to garner the support of White voters and liberal politicians, have created drastic anti- corporate interests.106,107 Congress instituted a immigrant policies, leading to militarized bor- bed quota in immigration prisons as well as ders, immigrant police forces, imprisonment expanded ICE and technology for the border (and abuses), and deportations of predomi- wall.108 Obama expanded his enforcement nantly non-White immigrants. Immigrants in authority to deport people, including for a Europe now account for over a quarter of the newly created “signifcant misdemeanors” cat- prison population.116 egory that included offenses such as DUIs.109,110 In Mexico, US foreign policies have After Congress failed to pass the DREAM Act, exported the tough-on-immigration para- the immigrant community organized to pres- digm that overwhelmingly targets Central sure Obama to scale back the deportation Americans, Native people, and those globally machine. However, since the deserving im- displaced who enter through Mexico, causing migrant category was substantially narrowed, migrants to use violent routes when heading DACA became the only politically viable toward the United States.117,118 Notably, under option, providing deferred deportation relief, the Obama administration, Mexico received limited work and education authorization, substantial fnancial and technical support and some legal protections to 7.2 percent of to militarize its Guatemalan southern border the entire undocumented population.111 In all, and train federal police forces as a method to

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Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3444515 prevent people from migrating to the United physically admits and removes immigrants— States.119 Since 2008, the United States has or whether it does so at all.128,129 It also has ramped up hundreds of millions of dollars the power to bestow immigrants with as many to security assistance through the Central social, political, and legal rights as it desires.130 American Security Initiative (CARSI). Most In essence, Congress can abolish the current recently, Mexican nationalists, including system and build a humane and reparative al- some militia members, violently protested and ternative. However, Congress has maintained called for the removal of Central Americans in an inhumane, punitive, exploitative, and the caravan, characterized as vagrant potheads exclusionary system for the purposes of pre- by the mayor of Tijuana and as criminal ille- serving a status quo law-and-order system that gal alien invaders by other protestors.120,121,122 uses the deserving immigrant for their labor Since migrating into the United States via and punishes the criminal alien.131 Members safe ports is made virtually impossible by the of Congress are indebted—through massive United States, drug-traffcking organizations corporate campaign fnancing from groups monopolize migration routes, leading to kid- profting from this paradigm—to preserve such nappings, extortion, forced labor, and abuse.123 a system because it is the platform upon which These conditions, caused by the tough-on- both parties build their political power.132 immigration paradigm, are what forced migrants Since the 18th century, and with Reagan’s to mobilize to the United States via a caravan. revitalization, the tough-on-immigration para- Across all cases, immigrants are character- digm has been core to appealing to the White ized as alien invaders and demonized as interest- voting base and corporate interests. Both based threats (i.e., economic and security) and parties develop immigration and economic identity-based threats to the dominant White policies within the tough-on-immigration par- citizen culture and institutions protecting that adigm, even in rhetorical rebuke to Trump, identity.124 The threat narrative is purpose- that include more militarized borders,133 ful, persuasive, and effective at maintaining family separations,134 policing,135 mandatory our current system at the expense of human detention, and deportation as well as economic suffering. Yet this same system also causes instability via massive transfers in wealth.136,137 economic, social, and environmental insta- The Democratic National Committee’s bility globally, leading to mass displacement 125 abroad. These politics create policies that set [Congress] has the power to bestow up violent infrastructures that make it diffcult immigrants with as many social, political, for displaced people to seek refuge or reject an exploitative economic order by forcing people and legal rights as it desires...Congress to choose either to stay or to traverse through can abolish the current system and build a some of world’s deadliest and most violent humane and reparative alternative. borders.126 If they do decide to seek a better life and survive the journey, they are subject position on immigration is “comprehensive to punishment through mass incarceration, immigration reform that fxes our nation’s policing, and deportation.127 broken immigration system, improves bor- der security, prioritizes enforcement so we Preserving the Tough-on-Immigration are targeting criminals - not families,[sic] Paradigm keeps families together, and strengthens our Per the plenary power doctrine, Congress has economy.”138 The Democratic Congressional the absolute and unqualifed power to de- Campaign Committee (DCCC) position is termine the manner in which it legally and the same. DCCC Chair Rep. Ben Ray Lujan

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Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3444515 (R-New Mexico) articulated their position— in the same way as Republicans. For example, reminiscent of Rep. Lamar Smith’s 1996 foor Rep. (D-New York) and Rep. speech—as “tough and fair and that encour- Nancy Pelosi’s (D-California) counteroffer ages people to come forward but that makes to Trump’s border wall, included in the $1.6 sure that they get in line. That they are paying billion budget bill they passed on their frst taxes. We also know that a strong comprehen- day, called for tougher (virtual) border se- sive immigration reform would be positive curity, funding for more ICE personnel and for America’s economy. That also includes equipment, and more immigration judges. investments in border security. Our candidates The bipartisan support to preserve the depor- have been clear from the very beginning that tation machine is best illustrated by H.R. 4796 they support strong policies that lead to strong, (2018), introduced by Rep. Hurd (R-Texas). smart, and fair border security policies.”139 H.R. 4796 would increase immigration judges, 2020 Democratic presiden- protect DACA, and provide tial candidates align with the All [Democratic Party] conditional permanent resi- tough-on-immigration para- dent status only to those who proposals are within digm by calling for more bor- arrived before age 18 and der security, technology, and the tough-on-immigration resided since 2013. It also mass surveillance programs paradigm. calls on DHS to deploy the (e.g. ankle monitors for asy- most practical and effective lum seekers), as well as prioritizing criminal technology available along the border and aliens or people who pose a “real threat” and creates Operation Stonegarden in DHS to offering limited relief only for deserving im- provide border security grants to law enforce- migrants.140,141,142 For example, Julian Castro’s ment agencies involved in border protection “keep families together” policy is a replica of operations.145 In all, both Democrats and Obama’s “families not felons” approach. Republicans differ little in the substance of Similarly, the Republican National their immigration policies—with the key ex- Committee’s offcial stance is that “immigrants ception of Trump’s border wall. have undeniably made great contributions to Currently, the Democratic Party is mini- our country, but any national immigration mally divided on how to approach immigration policy must put the interests of our existing between those who want limited relief only citizens frst. To start, our border must be for Dreamers and temporary protected status absolutely secured and illegal immigration (TPS) recipients and those who want more must be stopped. Then, and only then, can pathways to citizenship.146 All proposals are we begin reforming our system in a way that within the tough-on-immigration paradigm. lets new immigrants experience the American For example, while the Justice Democrats, a Dream without causing economic hardships new progressive Democrat wing, campaigned to American citizens.”143 on abolishing ICE, these members voted to While the Democratic and Republican fund it on their frst day in offce and at most parties differ in how they brand their policies, want to replace ICE by expanding the reach of both operate only within the tough-on-immi- the criminal legal system, including state and gration paradigm.144 For example, by using local policing powers, to detain and deport im- language such as “improves border security, migrants.147 They also offer a limited pathway prioritizes enforcement so we are targeting to citizenship to a limited pool of deserving criminals . . . and strengthens our economy,” immigrants (replicating Reagan’s amnesty).148 Democrats are signaling a decades-long com- Meanwhile, Democrats in state legislatures, mitment to maintain the deportation regime rather than outright ban the use of private

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Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3444515 prisons, only want to improve prison condi- be guided by those most directly impacted and tions, meanwhile other states ramp up baby organizations working to uplift those voices jails.149,150 In this context, Trump’s counteroffer through a reparatory justice model, such as to end the shutdown by offering limited relief the one recently articulated by the California to DACA and TPS recipients in exchange for a Immigrant Youth Justice Alliance.158 As many $5.7 billion border wall makes sense. Without scholars, organizers, and immigrants argue, any substantially different proposals from the a new paradigm must abolish the deserving– Democrats outside the tough-on-immigration undeserving binary and fully defend the “crim- paradigm, both sides are only refning who is inal alien” by challenging the underlying deserving of relief while bolstering the deporta- moral presumptions embedded in this system tion machine—which both agree in principle while still holding those who commit harms should exist but differ in how to do it: physical in our communities accountable through non- border wall versus a modern, virtual one.151 carceral and anti-violent ways. There are fragmented steps toward a new par- adigm addressing root causes of displacement. Criminalizing, segregating, and For example, the progressive Congressional persecuting immigrants by placing them Caucus call for reforming US trade policies that in cages and subjecting them to state- have contributed to forced migration and to providing aid to Central American countries for sanctioned abuses is antithetical to life, community-led sustainable economic develop- liberty, and happiness ment.152,153 Sen. (D-California) introduced a bill to prohibit the expansion of Recently, Michelle Alexander added that new federal immigration prisons.154 Rep. Lou in order for the United States to move to- Correa (D-California) has called, but never ward an actual humane immigration system, introduced legislation, for a new Marshall plan we must grapple with the moral contradic- to “stabilize Central America.”155 Finally, some tions embedded in the mythical notion of Democrats have suggested that an open bor- US exceptionalism, which claims that all der policy would allow people to move toward people, not just White men with property, better wages.156 are “‘created equal’ with ‘inalienable rights’ Democrats and Republicans are choosing including ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of hap- to amass political power by preserving the piness.’ As Alexander continues to say, “[but] toxic cycle of tough-on-immigration politics. [i]f this is true, on what moral grounds can Such nihilistic concept of political power lacks we greet immigrants with tear gas and lock accountability for how their politics and poli- them in for-proft detention camps, or build cies perpetuate human suffering. If Congress walls against the huddled masses yearning actually wants to address the root causes of to breathe free?” Criminalizing, segregat- human displacement, they must move to a ing, and persecuting immigrants by placing new paradigm. them in cages and subjecting them to state- sanctioned abuses is antithetical to life, lib- Toward a New Paradigm erty, and happiness. One need only listen to Our current immigration system is morally the screams of children as their parents are bankrupt. It is meant to maximize human suf- torn away from them, to the cries of mothers fering as the sole deterrent and punitive strat- sleeping on frigid concrete foors of prisons, egy to minimize, or entirely prevent, displaced or to the shouts of families waking up from peoples from seeking refuge.157 In developing nightmares of trauma to know that the US im- an alternative paradigm, policy makers must migration system has been, and is, inhumane.

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Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3444515 The United States will never be able to fully an increasingly small elite of corporate board create an actual humane immigration system, members make decisions affecting billions of let alone achieve its mythical exceptional people, is truly democratic, just, or the best moral vision for itself, if it does not frst fully method to produce and redistribute wealth. address these inherent contradictions. It must The answer is likely no. Fourth, we must rec- come to terms with its role in destabilizing ognize that criminal legal and prison systems, regions across the world and in creating con- and the for-proft industries connected to it, ditions leading to mass violence, environ- must be abolished not only as an economically mental degradation, genocide,159 capitalist better alternative but as a moral imperative. As exploitation, fractured political systems, and many scholars, activists, and survivors have human displacement.160 demonstrated, these are systems not designed While there are various specifc policy pro- for justice or to hold people accountable for posals necessary to create a humane immigra- the harms they committed but rather designed tion system, this article seeks to provide the to control, dehumanize, and eliminate unde- framing for a new paradigm. First, we must sired peoples. As many groups have historically imagine a world beyond politically and eco- recognized, we must acknowledge that hold- nomically constructed borders. We must reject ing people accountable for the harms they a status quo where human beings are subject commit and placing someone in a cage are to criminalization, detention, and abuse but two different things. We must look toward non- capital and profts fow unrestrained. Second, carceral and anti-violent reparative practices, we must work toward a world where workers like those developed by Survived & Punished can collectively bargain internationally and and Common Justice, who have models for own means of their own production in order addressing interpersonal violence, repair- to self-determine their life as they best see ing pain, and rehabilitating those who cause ft. Interestingly, it was the Trump adminis- harm by also addressing systemic conduits to tration who demonstrated that such policy violence. Moreover, Congress must reject prescriptions are possible as evidenced in the the infuence of for-proft prisons or special United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement interests who continue to peddle tough-on- (USMCA), which in an effort to protect jobs immigration policies as a business strategy. for US workers, included minimum-wage Fifth, Congress must stop supporting policies provisions and the right for Mexican workers that militarize the border, forcing people to to unionize. Congress must take the bolder traverse violent paths, and must instead create step by moving toward an international human humane physical pathways of migration sup- right of free movement for all people, not just ported by humanitarian aid, health services, those from Western hegemonies. Such a system and legal services. Finally, Congress needs to must guarantee basic human, labor, legal, and entirely abolish the caste system created by civil rights and liberties, including the right to the legal and political construct of citizenship, vote, legal counsel, and due process. Third, all which alienates noncitizens from basic human must work toward replacing our current eco- rights of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness nomic world order, which maintains global as well as basic legal, political, and labor caste systems of exploitation, dehumanization, rights—calling into question the current form and elimination for the self-interests of an elite of American democracy. Instead, we must few who are increasingly concentrating more view that in order to call ourselves a true de- wealth and political power in their hands. We mocracy—a system where the people self-de- need to fundamentally question whether the termine their destiny—we must allow those global capitalist system as it exists today, where most marginalized, as a precondition to truth,

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Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3444515 to be heard and participate in shaping our Paramount, California. As a frst-generation destiny. A real democratic dialogue requires xicano, he completed a double BA in politi- the basic affrmative ethical commitment to cal science and music performance from UC recognizing the citizenship and humanity of Irvine. In post-grad, he worked as a Fulbright those most at the margins—the more than 11 scholar in Colombia and legislative aid in million undocumented immigrants and those the California State Senate and obtained currently held in immigration prisons. dual master’s degrees in education from the Although Congress has demonstrated an University of Bristol and in evidence-based unwillingness to substantially change the social intervention and policy evaluation status quo, history has shown its willingness from the University of Oxford, both as a to respond when pressured. Evoking such a Marshall Scholar. He spent his 1L summer response from Congress will require a large- working with MALDEF on immigration pol- scale intersectional, intergenerational, global, icy advocacy and impact litigation as well and multiethnic social movement led by those as working with Improve Your Tomorrow most marginalized. Even in the face of con- (IYT) to abolish zero-tolerance policies stant state repression in the form of constant and implement restorative justice practices surveillance, policing, and detention, the across Sacramento. At HLS, Felipe is also a peoples’ movimiento will never stop.161 For ex- member of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, ample, the national mobilization against the Harvard Defenders, Harvard Immigration 2006 Sensenbrenner Immigration Bill (H.R. Project, Harvard BlackLetter Law Journal, 4437) and increased work raids, deportations, and Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law and hate crimes demonstrates both the effec- Review. Felipe is interested in prison and tiveness of mass organizing but also the pitfalls police abolition and dismantling the crim- of not sustaining the movement beyond a migration system through social-movement legislative or electoral campaign, as undocu- building and community lawyering. mented people were arguably more under at- tack after the mass marches as anti-immigrant sentiment escalated.162 The fact remains that as long as people are kept at the margins as a necessary means to preserve a law-and-order capitalist system, human suffering will continue. But so will or- ganized efforts to change it. If Congress truly wants to appeal to its exceptionalist moral principles, then it must abandon the tough-on- immigration paradigm. Ultimately, Congress has a choice to make in exercising the full limits of its plenary power: do they remain complicit in preserving the toxic tough-on-immigration Endnotes paradigm for the purpose of preserving polit- 1 Martin Luther King, Jr., “Beyond Vietnam — A Time ical power, or do they create an alternative to Break Silence,” Riverside Church, , 4 April 1967. humane and reparative system? 2 “Mexico,” Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), US Department of State, Author Bio accessed December 10, 2018, https://www.state.gov/j/ Felipe is a second-year law student at Harvard inl/regions/westernhemisphere/219174.htm. Since Law School (HLS). He is originally from 2007, and reauthorized by Obama in 2008 and Trump

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Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3444515 in 2017, the Merida Initiative is a US–Mexico bilateral positioned against non-white workers, the multi-axis agreement in which the United States provides military category in which most immigrants are initially placed training, resources, and intelligence support to Mexican even if they later “become” white, in a battle for pieces of military and police to “improve security, enhance the fgurative, and sometimes literal, pie.” criminal prosecutions and rule of law, build public 13 Justin Ankers Chacon and Mike Davis, No One Is confdence in the justice sector, improve border security Illegal: Fighting Racism and State Violence on the U.S.- and reduce irregular migration, and promote greater Mexico Border (: Haymarket Books, 2006). respect for human rights.” 14 García Hernández, “The Perverse Logic of Immigration 3 Adam Wernik, “Climate change is contributing to Detention,” 364. “Our nation’s passion for surveilling and the migration of Central American refugees,” Public jailing nonwhite bodies today has turned with renewed Radio International, 15 July 2018, https://www.pri. vigor toward immigrants. In a society that embraces mass org/stories/2018-07-15/climate-change-contributing- imprisonment, as does ours, imprisonment is not merely migration-central-american-refugees. an understandable component of sorting the desirable 4 Tara Golshan, “What Trump’s ‘lethal force’ from the undesirable.” authorization means at the border,” Vox, 15 Per-Olof H. Wikström, “Individuals, settings, and acts 27 November 2018, https://www.vox.com/ of crime: situational mechanisms and the explanation policy-and-politics/2018/11/27/18112610/ of crime,” in The Explanation of Crime: Context, trump-lethal-force-caravan-migrant-border-military. Mechanisms and Development, ed. Per-Olof H. 5 Donald J. Trump, “Presidential Proclamation Addressing Wilkström and Robert J. Sampson (Cambridge, UK: Mass Migration Through the Southern Border of the Cambridge University Press, 2006): 61–107. United States,” presidential proclamation, 9 November 16 Chacon and Davis, No One Is Illegal, 174. “In a 2018, https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/ capitalist economy, the most wealthy and powerful presidential-proclamation-addressing-mass-migration- interests exert the most infuence and control over the southern-border-united-states/. offcial institutions of the state, and can therefore use the 6 John Burnett, “Almost 15,000 Migrant Children Now state as a labor supplier and regulator. Since the primary Held At Nearly Full Shelters,” NPR, 13 December 2018, desire of capitalist is to make maximum proft, they seek www..org/2018/12/13/676300525/almost-15-000- the cheapest and most controllable human material to do migrant-children-now-held-at-nearly-full-shelters. their labor. Immigration laws, are therefore, necessarily 7 Francesca Paris, “8-Year-Old Migrant Boy Dies In contradictory. Initially, immigration proposals derive from Government Custody In New Mexico Hospital,” economic imperative: that is, the ratio of existing workers NPR, 25 December 2018, https://www.npr. to expected job growth determines whether there will be a org/2018/12/25/680066848/8-year-old-migrant-boy-dies- walls-up or doors-open policy. They take further political in-government-custody-in-new-mexico-hospital. shape on the basis of how imported labor can be separated, 8 David A. Graham, “Are Children Being Kept in controlled, or used as a wedge against existing labor ‘Cages’ at the Border?” The Atlantic, 18 June 2018, organization. Once basic core elements are established https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/06/ and codifed, secondary issues are negotiated with the ceci-nest-pas-une-cage/563072. representatives of civil society, which creates the illusion of 9 Aaron Rupar, “Trump’s big immigration speech was a pluralistic approach, as does the fact that capitalist work based on 2 false premises,” Vox, 9 January 2019, through interest groups and political representatives to https://www.vox.com/2019/1/8/18174669/ meet their labor needs and ensure labor passivity.” trump-speech-immigration-fact-check-border. 17 Geoff West and Alex Baumgart, “‘Zero-tolerance’ 10 Cheryl I. Harris, “Whiteness as Property,” Harvard Law immigration policy is big money for contractors, Review 106, no. 8 (1993): 1707–91. nonprofts,” OpenSecrets.org, 21 June 2018, https:// 11 Pooja Gehi, “Gendered (In)security: Migration and www.opensecrets.org/news/2018/06/zero-tolerance- Criminalization in the Security State,” Harvard Journal of immigration-is-big-money-for-contractors-nonprofts/. Law and Gender 35 (2012): 357–85. Examines how the 18 Chacon and Davis, No One Is Illegal, 195: 2014 Memo, which ordered ICE “Immigration policy, infuenced by issues of race, class, and DHS to prioritize deportations, disproportionately and proximity to Mexico, ultimately refects a two-track impacted queer and transgender undocumented system by which Mexican workers become segregated immigrants. and separated from the rest of the working class through 12 César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández, “The Perverse the designation of some Mexicans as ‘illegal.’ Couched Logic of Immigration Detention: Unraveling the in the language of legality, it remains a means of division Rationality of Imprisoning Immigrants Based on Markers of exclusion to better sustain the hegemony of capital of Race and Class Otherness,” Columbia Journal of over labor.” Race and Law 1, no. 3 (2012): 353. “White workers are 19 Danny Dorling, Inequality and the 1% (New York:

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Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3444515 Verso, 2014). “In the UK the groups most blamed for Now!” United We Dream, accessed 9 December 2018, our current woes are not the 1 per cent, but immigrants. https://action.unitedwedream.org/petitions/keep-the- Increasingly the poorest of newly arrived immigrants fall deferred-action-for-childhood-arrivals-daca-program. into the ‘human trash’ category.” “Passing permanent protection for immigrant youth in the 20 Lisa Marie Cacho, Social Death: Racialized form of a Dream Act that stays true to our values: no border Rightlessness and the Criminalization of the Unprotected wall, no more detention, no more deportations for the (New York: New York University Press, 2012). Traces the protections of those impacted. Congress needs to pass the criminalization of bodies of color, particularly African Dream Act that does not include funding for enforcement American, Southeast Asian, and Latinx, by labeling them that would endanger other immigrants. I will not put a as suspected terrorists and enemies of the state while target on my mother or others members of my community decriminalizing Whiteness to demonstrate the political, in order to get relief for immigrant youth.” legal, and social strategies used to bring about a social 30 García Hernández, “The Perverse Logic of death of these marginalized groups in an effort to protect Immigration Detention,” 358. “Prisons, then, are Whiteness. immigration law’s necessary purgatory, the physical in- 21 Nick Miroff and Robert Moore, “7-year-old migrant girl between space that must exist to facilitate the welcoming taken into Border Patrol custody dies of dehydration, embrace of the “good immigrant” and DHS’s concerted exhaustion,” The Washington Post, 13 December 2018, efforts to remove unwanted immigrants.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/ world/national- 31 1790 Naturalization Act, 1 Stat. 103 (1790). security/7-year-old-migrant-girl-taken-into-border-patrol- 32 Martha S. Jones, Birthright Citizens: A History of Race custody-dies-of-dehydration-exhaustion/2018/12/13/8909 and Rights in Antebellum America, (Cambridge, UK: e356-ff03-11e8-862a-b6a6f3ce8199_story.html?fbclid=Iw Cambridge University Press, 2018). AR00e7N9h9n3AKhhF-wgFJssHCo8Rmd8kwPsrGBf5g 33 Harris, “Whiteness as Property,” 1707–79. mdSuU_ru4JdJphCsY&noredirect= 34 Carey McWilliams, Factories in the Fields: The Story on&utm_term=.438f00fb70a0. of Migratory Farm Labor in California (Berkeley, CA: 22 John Washington, “Here Is Just Some of the Hateful University of California Press, 2000). Abuse Immigrants Face in Detention Centers,” The 35 Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, An Indigenous Peoples’ History Nation, 27 June 2018, https://www.thenation.com/article/ of the United States (New York: Beacon Press, 2014). just-hateful-abuse-immigrants-face-detention-centers/. 36 Reginald Horseman, Race and Manifest Destiny: The 23 Justin Akers Chacón, Radicals in the Barrio: Origins of American Racial Anglo-Saxonism (Cambridge, Magonistas, Socialists, Wobblies, and Communists in the MA: Harvard University Press, 1986). Mexican-American Working Class (Chicago: Haymarket 37 The National Archives and Records Administration, Books, 2018). Our Documents: 100 Milestone Documents from the 24 Laura Pulido, Black, Brown, Yellow, and Left: Radical National Archives (New York: Oxford University Press, Activism in (Berkeley, CA: University of 2003), 10. California Press, 2006). 38 Diana L. Ahmad, “Opium smoking, anti-Chinese 25 Vicki L. Ruiz, From Out of the Shadows: Mexican attitudes, and the American medical community, Women in Twentieth-Century America, Tenth Edition 1850–1890,” American Nineteenth Century History 1, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008). no. 2 (2000): 53–68. 26 Daysi Diaz-Strong et al., “Commentary: Organizing 39 Robert M. Buffngton, Criminal and Citizen in Modern Tensions — From the Prison to the Military-Industrial Mexico (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2000). Complex,” Social Justice 36, no. 2 (2009–2010): 73–84. 40 Mae M. Ngai, “The Architecture of Race in American “Strategies for legalization offered by the state and Immigration Law: A Reexamination of the Immigration embraced by many vulnerable communities, such as the Act of 1924,” The Journal of American History, 86, no. 1 DREAM Act, trade on tropes of ‘innocence’ and ‘merit,’ (1999): 67–92. 70: Demonstrates how “the Immigration thus reinforcing the idea that there are ‘real’ criminals and Act of 1924 comprised a constellation of reconstructed undeserving or guilty immigrants who should legitimately racial categories, in which race and nationality which be denied access to pathways for legalization.” ranked those of European descent in a hierarchy of 27Angélica Cházaro, “Challenging the ‘Criminal Alien’ desirability and constructed a white American race, in Paradigm,” UCLA Law Review 63, no. 3 (2016): 594–664. which persons of European descent shared a common 28 Niv Elis, “Senate DHS bill includes $1.6 billion for whiteness that made them distinct from those deemed ‘fencing’ on border,” The Hill, 19 June 2018, https:// to be not white. Meanwhile non-European immigrants- thehill.com/policy/fnance/appropriations/392974-senate- among them Japanese, Chinese, Mexicans, and dhs-bill-includes-16-billion-for-fencing-on-border. Filipinos-acquired ethnic and racial identities that were 29 Adrian Reyna, “To: Members of Congress, United States one and the same. The racialization of the latter groups’ Congress: Protect Immigrant Youth: Pass Dream Act national origins rendered them unalterably foreign and

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Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3444515 unassimilable to the nation.” Cult of Brutality Since 1924,” The Intercept, 12 41 J. David Cisneros, “Contaminated Communities: January 2019, https://theintercept.com/2019/01/12/ The Metaphor of ‘Immigrant as Pollutant’ in Media border-patrol-history/. Representations of Immigration,” Rhetoric and Public 49 Rick Su, “Local Fragmentation as Immigration Affairs 11, no. 4 (2008): 569–601. Regulation,” Houston Law Review 47, no. 2 (2010): 367. 42 “Major U.S. Immigration Policies, 1790 - Present,” 50 Terry Gross, “A ‘Forgotten History’ Of How the U.S. Migration Policy Institute, March 2013, https://www. Government Segregated America,” NPR, 3 May 2017, migrationpolicy.org/research/timeline-1790. https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript. 43 The 1917 Immigration Act established literacy tests php?storyId=526655831. and taxes on immigrants to prevent undesired migrants 51 Alex Wagner, “America’s Forgotten History of Illegal from entering. However, as farmers and manufacturers Deportations,” The Atlantic, 6 March 2017, https:// needed more laborers, they lobbied Congress to allow www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/03/americas- Mexican immigrants into the United States. A cotton brutal-forgotten-history-of-illegal-deportations/517971/. company executive wrote President Woodrow Wilson, Throughout the 1920s and 30s, the United States “Personally, I believe that the Mexican laborers are the carried out a series of mass removals in the interest of solution to our common labor problem in this country. protecting employment of White Americans. In 1955, Many of their people are here, this was once part of President Eisenhower ordered Operation Wetback, their country, and they can and they will do the work.” which forcefully removed 1.3 million Mexicans, most Then after the Great Crash of 1929, nearly 2 million of whom were laborers who came through the 1942 Mexican people were deported by city, state, and federal Bracero Program. The Walter-McCarren Act of 1952 governments to Mexico by President Hoover’s “American made it a felony to import or harbor, but not to employ, jobs for real Americans” program unitl about 1936; see “illegal aliens” which allowed agribusinesses to deport Melissa Block, “Remembering California’s ‘Repatriation any immigrant at its will; see also Erin Blackmore, “The Program,’” All Things Considered, podcast audio, 2 Largest Mass Deportation in American History,” History. January 2006, https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story. com, 23 March 2018, https://www.history.com/news/ php?storyId=5079627. operation-wetback-eisenhower-1954-deportation. 44 Mike Davis, Prisoners of the American Dream: Politics 52 Charles M. Blow, “White Extinction Anxiety,” The and Economy in the History of the US Working Class New York Times, 24 June 2018, https://www.nytimes. (London: Verso, 1999). com/2018/06/24/opinion/america-white-extinction.html. 45 Anna Diamond, “The Original Meanings of the 53 Brian Resnick, “White fear of demographic change is a ‘American Dream’ and ‘America First’ Were Starkly powerful psychological force,” Vox, 28 January 2017, Different From How We Use Them Today,” Smithsonian https://www.vox.com/science- Magazine, October 2018, and-health/2017/1/26/14340542/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/behold- white-fear-trump-psychology-minority-majority. america-american-dream-slogan-book-sarah-churchwell- 54 Juan Gonzalez, Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos 180970311/#KSi3dK32ssRHQcxY.99. “‘The American in America (New York: Penguin Group, 2001). Dream’ has always been about the prospect of success, 55 Mark Tseng-Putterman, “A Century of U.S. but 100 years ago, the phrase meant the opposite of what Intervention Created the Immigration Crisis,” Medium, it does now. The original ‘American Dream’ was not a 20 June 2018, https://medium.com/s/story/timeline- dream of individual wealth; it was a dream of equality, us-intervention-central-america-a9bea9ebc148. US justice and democracy for the nation. The phrase was conducted interventions in Central America from the repurposed by each generation, until the Cold War, 1920s to 2006 to support authoritarian regimes and when it became an argument for a consumer capitalist protect corporations like the United Fruit Company. version of democracy. Our ideas about the ‘American 56 Chacón, Radicals in the Barrio. The Porfriato Dream’ froze in the 1950s. Today, it doesn’t occur to Dictatorship in Mexico in the late 19th and early 20th anybody that it could mean anything else.” century used to protect U.S. investors who owned up to 46 Richard Fry and Rakesh Kochhar, “America’s wealth 80% of Mexico’s capital interests. gap between middle-income and upper-income families 57 Michelle Chen, “How US ‘Free Trade’ Policies is widest on record,” Pew Research Center, 17 December Created the Central American Migration Crisis,” 2014, http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/12/17/ The Nation, 6 February 2015, https://www.thenation. wealth-gap-upper-middle-income/. com/article/how-us-free-trade-policies-created-central- 47 Kelly Lytle Hernández, Migra! A History of the U.S. american-migration-crisis/. Border Patrol (Berkeley, CA: University of California 58 Chacón, Radicals in the Barrio. Press, 2010), 103–24. 59 Ruth Gomberg-Munoz and Laura Nussbaum- 48 Gren Grandin, “The Border Patrol Has Been a Barberena, “Is Immigration Policy Labor Policy?:

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Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3444515 Immigration Enforcement, Undocumented Workers, and an ancestral talisman, Trump cracked the glowing amulet the State,” Human Organization 70, no. 4 (2011): 366–75. open, releasing its eldritch energies.” 60 Mary Jo Dudley, “These U.S. industries can’t 71 Rupert Neate, “Donald Trump announces work without illegal immigrants,” CBS News, 10 US presidential run with eccentric speech,” January 2019, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ The Guardian, 16 June 2015, https://www. illegal-immigrants-us-economy-farm-workers-taxes/. theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jun/16/ 61 Ian F. Haney-Lopez, “The Social Construction of donald-trump-announces-run-president. Race: Some Observations on Illusion, Fabrication, and 72 Peter Schrag, “The Forgotten American,” Harper’s Choice,” Harvard Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Law Magazine, August 1969, 27–34. The “forgotten Review 29, no. 1 (1994). man,” coined by Peter Schrag, is the lower-middle- 62 Kevin R. Johnson, “‘Aliens’ and the U.S. Immigration class White citizen “who watches the tube, plays the Laws: The Social and Legal Construction of horses, and keeps the n****** out of his union and Nonpersons,” The University of Inter-American his neighborhood. Who might vote for [Gov. George] Law Review 28, no. 2 (1996/1997) : 263–92. Wallace (but didn’t). Who cheers when the cops beat up 63 Melissa Jeanette Pujol, “The Neoliberal Construction on demonstrators. Who is free [and] white . . . .” of Immigration as Crisis” (master’s thesis, Eastern 73 CNN, “Trump on campaign ad: ‘Just telling the Kentucky University, 2015), 307, https://encompass.eku. truth’,” CNN video, 2018, https://www.cnn.com/videos/ edu/etd/307. politics/2018/11/02/trump-reaction-racist-ad-sot-west- 64 Sally Davison and George Shire, “Race, migration virginia-rally-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/this-week-in-politics/. and neoliberalism: How neoliberalism benefts from 74 Leo R. Chavez, The Threat: Constructing discourses of exclusion,” Soundings 59 (2015): 81–95. Immigrants, Citizens, and the Nation (Stanford, CA: 65 Krishna Andavolu, “Permanently Temporary,” Vice Stanford University Press, 2013). News, 13 December 2013, https://www.vice.com/en_us/ 75 Cornel West, “Nihilism in America,” in Democracy article/av4vw4/permanently-temporary-0000176-v20n12. Matters: Winning the Fight Against Imperialism (New 66 Karen Hao, “Amazon is the invisible backbone behind York: Penguin Books, 2004). ICE’s immigration crackdown,” MIT Technology 76 Thomas B. Edsall, “White Identity Politics Aren’t Review, 22 October 2018, https://www.technologyreview. Going Anywhere,” The New York Times, 20 December com/s/612335/amazon-is-the-invisible-backbone-behind- 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/20/opinion/ ices-immigration-crackdown/. trump-race-immigration-democrats.html. 67 Bryan Menegus, “Amazon’s Aggressive Anti-Union 77 John Sides, Michael Tesler, and Lynn Vavreck, Identity Tactics Revealed in Leaked 45-Minute Video,” Crisis: The 2016 Presidential Campaign and the Battle for Gizmodo, 26 September 2018, https://gizmodo.com/ the Meaning of America (Princeton: Princeton University amazons-aggressive-anti-union-tactics-revealed-in- Press, 2018). Authors argue against the prevalent idea leake-1829305201. that Trump attracted White voters who felt victimized by 68 Alexandra Staub, “Amazon’s move will gentrify loss of jobs and worries over economic insecurity, instead neighborhoods – at what social cost?” The Conversation, mounting abundant evidence for their contention that 21 November 2018, https://theconversation.com/ group identities mattered more to voters than perceptions amazons-move-will-gentrify-neighborhoods-at-what-social- of economic hardship or inequality. “Divisions centered cost-107264. on how voters felt about groups they did not belong to, 69 Emily Jane Fox, “How Amazon’s new jobs really stack including blacks, Muslims, and immigrants.” up,” CNN Business, 30 July 2013, https://money.cnn. 78 Frank Ackerman, Reaganomics: Rhetoric vs. Reality com/2013/07/30/news/companies/amazon-warehouse- (Boston: South End Press, 1982). workers/index.html. Amazon ranked 12 as the most 79 Richard E. Feinberg, “Central American Stability,” The proftable company in the world with CEO Jeff Bezos net New York Times, 26 February 1982, https://www.nytimes. worth of $160 billion and a median warehouse employee com/1982/02/26/opinion/central-american-stability. salary of $24,300. html. “The newly announced Caribbean Basin Initiative 70 Ta-Nehisi Coates, “The First White President,” The demonstrates the Administration’s conceptual boldness. Atlantic, October 2017, https://www.theatlantic.com/ The proposals seek to create a favorable climate for magazine/archive/2017/10/the-frst-white-president-ta- private investment in Central America and the Caribbean nehisi-coates/537909/. “It is often said that Trump has islands through trade preferences, incentives for foreign no real ideology, which is not true—his ideology is white investment, and increased economic assistance.” supremacy, in all its truculent and sanctimonious power . 80 Elizabeth Hinton, From the War on Poverty to the War . . . To Trump, whiteness is neither notional nor symbolic on Crime: The Making of Mass Incarceration in America but is the very core of his power. In this, Trump is not (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2016). singular. But whereas his forebears carried whiteness like 81 James North, “How the US’s Foreign Policy Created an

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Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3444515 Immigrant Refugee Crisis on Its Own Southern Border,” speakership/6241546526410/. In her speech, Speaker The Nation, 9 July 2014, https://www.thenation.com/ Pelosi said, “He [Reagan] said, ‘If we ever close the door article/how-uss-foreign-policy-created-immigrant-refugee- to new Americans, our leadership role in the world will crisis-its-own-southern-border/. soon be lost.’ Our common cause is to fnd and forge a 82 Immigration and National Act of 1952 § 245A (a) way forward for our country. Let us stand for the people (4)(B), 8 U.S.C. § 1255a (a)(4)(B). Under IRCA, a to promote liberty and justice for all as we pledge every felony is defned as a crime punishable by over one year day. And always, always keep our nation safe from threats imprisonment, and a misdemeanor as a crime punishable old and new, from terrorism and cyber warfare overseas by one year or less, with the following exceptions: (1) and here at home to protect and defend.” a crime punishable by fve days or less is an infraction; 88 Ruben J. Garcia, “Critical Race Theory and and (2) if a state designates an offense as a misdemeanor Proposition 187: The Racial Politics of Immigration Law,” and the sentence actually imposed was one year or less, -Latino Law Review, 17 (1995): 118–54. the offense will be treated as a misdemeanor, regardless 89 “Prop. 187 Approved in California,” Migration News of the maximum punishment allowed under state 1, no. 11 (1994), https://migration.ucdavis.edu/mn/more. law. A sentence has been imposed where execution php?id=492. White (64% in support), Hispanic (31%), of sentence is suspended, but not where imposition of Asian (57%), and African-American (52%) voters. Exit sentence is suspended. See 8 C.F.R. § 245a.1 (o), (p) poll data showed that only 40% of voters believed the and Comments, published in 53 Fed. Reg. 9, 862-4 (28 measure was racist or anti-Latinx. March 1988). 90 Michael J. New, “The Tax Revolt Turns 25,” 83 Special to the New York Times, “Amnesty: Who Is CATO Institute, 29 May 2003, https://www.cato.org/ Eligible,” The New York Times Archives, 3 November publications/commentary/tax-revolt-turns-25. “Indeed, 1986, https://www.nytimes.com/1986/11/03/us/amnesty- after California’s expenditure limit was raised in the who-is-eligible.html. early 1990s, spending soared, nearly doubling between 84 A specifc statutory provision for immigrants seeking 1990 and 2001. As a result, California has had to raise legalization under IRCA establishes a special rule for the income tax, the sales tax, and taxes on beer, wine, such individuals even if they are found, under the gasoline, and cigarettes to keep pace with these rising totality of the circumstances test, to be public charges. expenditures. In fact, during the early 1990s, Gov. Pete 8 U.S.C. § 1225a(d)(2)(B)(iii). This special rule focuses Wilson even proposed hiking taxes on snack foods. on a prospective determination that includes the “past This cycle of spending and taxing is the root cause of acceptance of public cash assistance within a history of California’s current fscal problems.” consistent employment.” Id., see also 8 C.F.R. § 245a.3(g) 91 Robert Reinhold, “California Forced to Turn to I.O.U’s,” (4)(iii). Non-cash benefts were explicitly excluded from The New York Times, 2 July 1992, https://www.nytimes. this assessment. 8 C.F.R. § 245a.1(i). com/1992/07/02/us/california-forced-to-turn-to-iou-s.html. 85 Marcel Paret, “Legality and exploitation: Immigration 92 George Lipsitz, “Immigrant Labor and Identity enforcement and the US migrant labor system,” Latino Politics,” in The Possessive Investment in Whiteness: Studies 12, no. 4 (2014): 503. “The day-to-day experience How White People Proft from Identity Politics of ‘illegality’ consists of a number of exclusions, from (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2006), 48–69. denied access to public spaces and services to the 93 “Prop. 187 Approved in California,” Migration News. absence of various legal protections. But perhaps the 94 Mary Pilon, “How Bill Clinton’s Welfare most important effect is the perpetual possibility of Reform Changed America,” History Stories, deportation. Though in practice the vast majority of 26 April 2018, https://www.history.com/news/ migrants are never deported, they must live and work clinton-1990s-welfare-reform-facts. under the surveillance of immigration offcials and the 95 “Major U.S. Immigration Laws, 1790 - Present,” threat of removal. Illegalization refers to the sum of these Migration Policy Institute. various effects, which constitute migrants as vulnerable 96 A. Elena Lacayo, “The Impact of Section 287(g) of outsiders within the space of the US nation-state.” the Immigration and Nationality Act on the Latino 86 John F. Cogan and David Brady, “The 1996 House Community,” National Council of , Issue Brief Elections: Reaffrming the Conservative Trend,” no. 12, 12 August 2010, http://publications.unidosus.org/ Hoover Institution, Stanford University, 1 March 1997, handle/123456789/1067. https://www.hoover.org/research/1996-house-elections- 97 Donald Kerwin, “From IIRIRA to Trump: Connecting reaffrming-conservative-trend the Dots to the Current US Immigration Policy Crisis,” 87 Clyde Hughes and Danielle Haynes, “Nancy Pelosi Journal on Migration and Human Security, DOI: quotes Ronald Reagan in return as House speaker,” 10.1177/2331502418786718. UPI, 3 January 2019, https://www.upi.com/Top_News/ 98 Margaret H. Taylor, “The Story of Demore V. US/2019/01/03/Pelosi-quotes-Reagan-in-return-to-House- Kim: Judicial Deference to Congressional Folly,” in

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Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3444515 Immigration Stories, David A. Martin and Peter H. 27 February 2017, https://bipartisanpolicy.org/blog/ Schuck, eds. (St Paul, MN: Foundation Press, 2005). comparing-trump-and-obamas-deportation-priorities/. 99 Congressional Record, vol. 142, H. 3605, 3617, 104th Priority 1: Persons engaged in or suspected of terrorism Congress, 2nd Session, April 18, 1996 (Mr. Smith.) or espionage, or who otherwise pose threat to national 100 Bill Clinton, Between Hope and History (New York: security; Convicted gang members; Persons apprehended Random House, 1996), 134. at the border attempting to unlawfully enter the country; 101 The National Security Entry-Exit Registration System Persons convicted of a felony (other than offenses (NSEERS) operated as a tracking program that set forth related to person’s immigration status) or aggravated registration requirements for noncitizen males 16 years felonies. Priority 2: Persons convicted of three or more and older—specifcally those who were nonimmigrants, misdemeanors (other than minor traffc offenses or such as visitors, students, holders, and offenses related to person’s immigration status); Persons asylum/refugee status seekers (67 Fed. Reg. 52584 [12 convicted of a signifcant misdemeanor (domestic August 2002]). This only applied to individuals from violence, sexual abuse/exploitation, burglary, unlawful Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Egypt, possession or use of a gun, drug distribution or traffcking, Eritrea, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, DUI); Persons who entered or reentered unlawfully after Libya, Morocco, North Korea, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, January 1, 2014; Persons who have signifcantly abused Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United visa programs. Priority 3: Persons with a fnal order of Arab Emirates, and Yemen. removal issued on or after January 1, 2014.” 102 Louise A. Cainkar, Homeland Insecurity: The Arab 110 Jeh C. Johnson, Secretary, U.S. Department of American and Muslim American Experience After 9/11 Homeland Security, “Policies for the Apprehension, (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2009). Detention and Removal of Undocumented Immigrants,” 103 Matt Ford, “Dismantle the Department of Homeland Memorandum to Thomas S. Winkowski, R. Gil Security,” The New Republic, 21 February 2018, Kerlikowske, Leon Rodriguez, and Alan D. Bersin, https://newrepublic.com/article/147099/dismantle- 20 November 2014 [PDF fle]. Categorizing the department-homeland-security?fbclid=IwAR1KZIqfmgp second-highest priority individuals for deportation for YQw9KGH--B5xRWCBpOvB9DAO3Q06b8E3M71Xe ICE: “aliens convicted of a ‘signifcant misdemeanor,’ lwGv7KSiJdA. which for these purposes is an offense of domestic 104 Randy Capps et al., Revving Up the Deportation violence; sexual abuse or exploitation; burglary; unlawful Machinary: Enforcement under Trump and the Pushback possession or use of a frearm; drug distribution or (Washington, DC: Migration Policy Institute, 2018). traffcking; or driving under the infuence; or if not an 105 George W. Bush, President of the United States, State offense listed above, one for which the individual was of the Union Address (28 January 2008). sentenced to time in custody of 90 days or more (the 106 Jonathan Chait, “Dan Pfeiffer’s Exit Interview: sentence must involve time to be served in custody, and How the White House Learned to Be Liberal,” New does not include a suspended sentence). . . .” York Magazine, 8 March 2015, http://nymag.com/ 111 “Consideration of Deferred Action for Childhood intelligencer/2015/03/dan-pfeiffer-exit-interview.html. In Arrivals (DACA),” U.S. Citizenship & Immigration a 2015 interview with New York Magazine, Dan Pfeiffer, Services, last updated 13 September 2016, https:// a top advisor to Obama for seven years, said: “Whenever www.uscis.gov/archive/consideration-deferred-action- we contemplate bold progressive action, whether that’s childhood-arrivals-daca. In creating the application the president’s endorsement of marriage equality, or . . . process for DACA, DHS created a new crime-based on immigration . . . you get a lot of hemming and hawing category disqualifying applicants for the immigration in advance about what this is going to mean: Is this going beneft: the signifcant misdemeanor. Consideration to alienate people? Is this going to hurt the president’s of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). approval ratings? What will this mean in red states?” Conviction of a felony offense, signifcant misdemeanor 107 Steve Phillips, Brown Is the New White: How the offense, or three or more other misdemeanor offenses Demographic Revolution Has Created a New American not occurring on the same date and not arising out of the Majority (New York: The New Press, 2016): 60–77. same act, omission, or scheme of misconduct precludes 108 “Immigration Detention Bed Quota Timeline,” DACA consideration. National Immigrant Justice Center, January 2017 [PDF 112 Marisa Franco and Carlos Garcia, “The Deportation fle]. In 2010, Congress enacted a bed quota that required Machine Obama Built for President Trump,” The the DHS to “maintain a level of not less than 33,400 Nation, 27 June 2016, https://www.thenation.com/article/ detention beds” per year, despite opposition from the the-deportation-machine-obama-built-for-president-trump/. immigrant community. 113 Patrick Wintour, “Hillary Clinton: Europe must curb 109 Lazaro Zamora, “Comparing Trump and Obama’s immigration to stop rightwing populists,” The Guardian, Deportation Priorities,” Bipartisan Policy Center, 22 November 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/

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Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3444515 world/2018/nov/22/hillary-clinton-europe-must-curb- inalienable right of every sovereign and independent immigration-stop-populists-trump-brexit. nation.” 114 Reece Jones, Violent Borders: Refugees and the Right 129 Nishimura Ekiu v. United States, 142 U.S. 651, 662 to Move (New York: Verso, 2016), 1–38. (1892). Justice Gray wrote, “It is an accepted maxim 115 Louise Shelley, “Human Smuggling and Traffcking of international law, that every sovereign nation has into Europe: A Comparative Perspective,” Migration the power, as inherent in sovereignty, and essential to Policy Institute, February 2014, https://www. preservation, to forbid the entrance of foreigners within its migrationpolicy.org/research/human-smuggling-and- dominions, or to admit them only in such cases and upon traffcking-europe-comparative-perspective. such conditions as it may see ft to prescribe.” 116 Marcelo F. Aebi and Natalia Delgrande, Council 130 Natsu Taylor Saito, “Asserting Plenary Power Over of Europe Annual Penal Statistics: SPACE I – Prison the ‘Other’: Indians, Immigrants, Colonial Subjects, populations. Survey 2013 (Strasbourg: Council of and Why U.S. Jurisprudence Needs To Incorporate Europe, 2014) [PDf fle]. International Law,” Yale Law & Policy Review 20, no. 2 117 Jared P. Van Ramshorst, “Anti-Immigrant Sentiment, (2002): 427–80. Rising Populism, and the Oaxacan Trump,” Journal of 131 Fong 149 U.S. at 698. Latin American Geography 17, no. 1 (2018): 253–256. 132 In 2018, GEO Group spent $1.15 million in 118 Jones, Violent Borders, 29-47. campaign contributions and $1.17 million in lobbying 119 Jeff Abbott, “Keep Out! How the U.S. Is Militarizing efforts. In the 2016 presidential election, GEO group Mexico’s Southern Border.” The Progressive. 2 spent $3.1 million in political contributions and $3.3 October 2017, https://progressive.org/magazine/ million in lobbying, while CoreCivic spent $1 million keep-out-how-the-us-militarizes-mexico-southern-border/. in political contributions and $1.8 million in lobbying. 120 Antonio Heras and Mireya Cuéllar,“Vecinos se During the 2018 midterm elections, Henry Cuellar enfrentan a golpes con migrantes en Playas de Tijuana,” (D-Texas) received $32,400, Vicente Gonzalez (D-Texas) La Jornada Baja California, 15 November 2018, https:// received $5,000, and Democratic Committee Chairmen www.jornada.com.mx/ultimas/2018/11/15/vecinos- Ben Lujan (D-New Mexico) received $5,000 from se-enfrentan-a-golpes-con-migrantes-en-playas-de- GEO Group. In 2010, 43 percent of contributions from tijuana-7243.html. CoreCivic went to Democrats. 121 Aly Valenzuela Ávila, “Alcalde de Tijuana llama ‘vagos 133 Russell Contreras, “Why U.S. militarization y marihuanos’ a la caravana de migrantes.” Tribuna, 17 of border isn’t new,” PBS News Hour, 5 April November 2018, https://www.tribuna.com.mx/mexico/ 2018, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/ Alcalde-de-Tijuana-llama-vagos-y-marihuanos-a-la- why-u-s-militarization-of-border-isnt-new. caravana-de-migrantes-20181117-0052.html. 134 Dara Lind, “What Obama did with migrant 122 VICE News, “Wildfre Body Count & School families vs. what Trump is doing,” Vox, 21 June Schooting Theater,” VICE News Tonight, HBO, aired 19 2018, https://www.vox.com/2018/6/21/17488458/ November 2018. obama-immigration-policy-family-separation-border. 123 Luis Gómez Romero, “Dozens of migrants 135 Julia Preston, “Obama Signs Border Bill to Increase disappear in Mexico as Central American caravan Surveillance,” The New York Times, 13 August pushes northward,” The Conversation, 15 November 2010, https://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/14/us/ 2018, https://theconversation.com/dozens-of-migrants- politics/14immig.html. disappear-in-mexico-as-central-american-caravan-pushes- 136 Muzaffar Chishti, Sarah Pierce, and Jessica Bolter, northward-106287. “The Obama Record on Deportations: Deporter 124 Jackie Hogan and Kristin Haltinner, “Floods, Invaders, in Chief or Not? ” Migration Policy Institute, 26 and Parasites: Immigration Threat Narratives and Right- January 2017, https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/ Wing Populism in the USA, UK and Australia,” Journal obama-record-deportations-deporter-chief-or-not. of Intercultural Studies 36, no. 5 (2015): 520–543. 137 Stephanie Dinan, “Obama expands ICE powers 125 Chen, “How US ‘Free Trade’ Policies Created the to pursue illegal immigrants for deportation, angers Central American Migration Crisis.” activists,” The Washington Times, 1 December 2015, 126 Jones, Violent Borders, 12–28, 48-69. https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/dec/1/ 127 Charis E. Kubrin, Marjorie S. Zatz, and Ramiro obama-expands-ice-powers-to-pursue-illegal-immigra/. Martínez, eds., Punishing Immigrants: Policy, Politics, and 138 “Immigration Reform,” Democratic National Injustice (New York: New York University Press, 2012). Committee, last updated 2018, https://democrats.org/ 128 Fong Yue Ting v. United States, 149 U.S. 698 (1893). issues/immigration-reform/. Justice Gray holding “The right to exclude or expel all 139 “DCCC Chair Emphasizes Democrats Position On aliens, or any class of aliens, absolutely or upon certain Immigration | Morning Joe | MSNBC,” YouTube video, conditions, in war or in peace, [is] an inherent and posted by “MSNBC,” 6 November 2018, https://www.

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Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3444515 youtube.com/watch?v=bl3mGnc1AJw. 150 Daniel Moattar, “Texas Detention Players Ramp Up 140 Emily Cadei, “Kamala Harris emerges as voice of Trump’s For-Proft ‘Baby Jails’,” The American Prospect, immigrant advocates in the Senate,” The Sacramento 20 December 2018, https://prospect.org/article/ Bee, published 12 January 2018, last updated 13 January texas-detention-players-ramp-trump%E2%80%99s-proft- 2018, https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/ baby-jails. capitol-alert/article194282134.html. 151 Julie Hirschfeld Davis, “In Trump’s Immigration 141 Molly Hennessy-Fiske, “Immigrants object to growing Announcement, a Compromise Snubbed All Around,” use of ankle monitors after detention,” The Los Angeles The New York Times, 19 January 2019, https://www. Times, 2 August 2015, https://www.latimes.com/nation/ nytimes.com/2019/01/19/us/politics/trump-immigration- immigration/la-na-immigrant-ankle-monitors-20150802- conservatives-democrats.html. story.html. 152 Congressional Progressive Caucus, “Kids First: A 142 Tal Alexrod, “Warren: ‘We need immigration laws Response to the Southern Border Humanitarian Crisis,” that focus on people who pose a real threat’,” The U.S. House of Representatives [PDf fle]. Hill, 22 August 2018, https://thehill.com/homenews/ 153 David Sirota, “Beto O’Rourke frequently voted for senate/403183-warren-tibbetts-killing-a-reminder-to-focus- Republican legislation, analysis reveals,” The Guardian, on-people-who-pose-a-real-threat. 20 December 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/ 143 “Immigration,” Republican National Committee, last us-news/2018/dec/20/beto-orourke-congressional-votes- updated 2019, accessed 10 December 2018, https://gop. analysis-capital-and-main?fbclid=IwAR22p4JFvYuzq5O0 com/issue/immigration/. mInTe_1hALcQ6ZuWzYf3oa6i1qgszpPQRrJsuLblZJ4. 144 William Finnegan, “The Deportation Machine,” The Beto O’Rourke wants to “pass the Dream Act and ensure New Yorker, 29 April 2013, https://www.newyorker.com/ that undocumented immigrants who were brought here magazine/2013/04/29/the-deportation-machine. as children, known as Dreamers, fnd a permanent home 145 USA Act of 2018, H.R. 4796, 115th Cong. (2018). and citizenship in the US and end the militarization of 146 Priscilla Alvarez, “Don’t Bet on Comprehensive our immigration enforcement system.” Immigration Reform in the New Congress,” 154 DONE Act, S.2849, 115th Cong. (2018). The Atlantic, 24 November 2018, https:// 155 Rachel Martin, “Trump, Top Democrats to Hash Out www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/11/ Plan to Avoid Government Shutdown,” Morning Edition: democrats-are-divided-immigration-reform/576457/ NPR, 11 December 2018. 147 Scott Jay, “Abolishing ICE by Funding It,” Black 156 Douglas Schoen, “Calls for open borders wind up Rose Anarchist Federation, 8 January 2019, http:// closing doors for Democrats,” The Hill, 25 July 2018, blackrosefed.org/aoc-abolish-ice-vote/?fbclid=IwA https://thehill.com/opinion/immigration/398786-calls-for- R2GXAirnql0yOd13LRUWHsX0IW2S0AAH6yn open-borders-wind-up-closing-doors-for-democrats. AAz_pNBxNy4bVrZTyIxdMsw. 157 John Burnett, “Transcript: White House Chief Of Staff 148 “Platform for Justice,” Justice Democrats, last updated John Kelly’s Interview With NPR,” NPR, 11 May 2018, 2018, https://www.justicedemocrats.com/issues. “Abolish https://www.npr.org/2018/05/11/610116389/transcript- ICE: ICE was created in 2003 as a reaction to 9/11. white-house-chief-of-staff-john-kellys-interview-with-npr. Since then, it has turned into a state-funded terror group 158 Juan Pietro, “First We Abolish ICE,” California that regularly violates basic human rights. We don’t Immigrant Youth Justice Alliance, 2 July 2018, https:// need a special enforcement agency for undocumented ciyja.org/frst-we-abolish-ice/. immigrants. We can rely on our existing criminal justice 159 Irma Alicia Velasquez Nimatuj, “Guatemala agency to arrest those who have committed a crime, just Suffered for U.S. Foreign Policy,” The New like we did before 2003.” “Comprehensive Immigration York Times, 19 May 2013, https://www. Reform: We won’t give an inch in our opposition to nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/05/19/ Trump’s outrageous proposals. Ideas like a ‘total and what-guilt-does-the-us-bear-in-guatemala/ complete’ shutdown of Muslim immigration and guatemala-suffered-for-us-foreign-policy. deporting all undocumented immigrants are anathema 160 Jeff Faux, “How US Foreign policy helped create to America. We will fght for comprehensive immigration the immigration crisis,” The Nation, 18 October 2017, reform with a path to citizenship. America is a proud https://www.thenation.com/article/how-us-foreign-policy- nation of immigrants.” helped-create-the-immigration-crisis/. 149 “Assemblymember Garcia to Introduce Bill 161 Nick Pinto, “No Sanctuary,” The Intercept, 19 Mandating Standards, Services of Children’s January 2018, https://theintercept.com/2018/01/19/ Immigration Detention Facilities,” Assemblymember ice-new-sanctuary-movement-ravi-ragbir-deportation/. Cristina Garcia, 22 June 2018, https://a58.asmdc.org/e- 162 Chris Zepeda-Millán, Latino Mass Mobilization: alert/assemblymember-garcia-introduce-bill-mandating- Immigration, Racialization, and Activism. (Cambridge, standards-services-childrens-immigration. UK: Cambridge University Press, 2017).

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Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3444515