Racialization and the Unauthorized Immigration Debate

Abstract

This paper critically examines the role of racialization in the political campaign to exclude unauthorized immigrants from inclusion in the national political community of the United States. The paper finds that racialization is pervasive in this political campaign, stemming from the framing of U.S. immigration policy enforcement as a project aimed at controlling the U.S.-Mexican border. From the foundational conceptualization and practices of border control, a series of examples of racializing practices – both discursive and material – are examined that operate to shore up and maintain a racial hierarchy that systematically subordinates Latinos as an ethno-racial group in the United States. Abstract will be provided by author.

Keywords: unauthorized immigrants, racialization, racial hierarchy, policy frames, immigration policy