Abstract U.S. Highway 99 is often coined the Golden State Highway and the Main Street of California. The road originally extended from the U.S.–Mexico border all the way to the Oregon border while passing through the Central Valley. When you travel along this route, you pass a little over half of all California prisons. By using U.S. Highway 99 as an entry point, this Article is a topographical...
Bordering Circuitry: Crossjurisdictional Immigration Surveillance
Abstract This Article builds upon literature on immigration surveillance, border control, and policing to explore the role of interoperable information systems and data sharing practices in the social control of immigrants from Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. Based upon an analysis of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) documents and statistical data, this Article examines two DHS...
Latinx Defendants, False Convictions, and the Difficult Road to Exoneration
Abstract The National Registry of Exonerations (the Registry) reports all known exonerations in the United States since 1989. Of the more than 2,400 exonerated defendants currently in the database, 281 are classified as Latinx. In many ways, their cases resemble those of other exonerees. The same factors that produced false convictions of non-Latinx defendants—including mistaken eyewitness...
Sentencing the “Other”: Punishment of Latinx Defendants
Abstract Some recent state and federal sentencing studies have turned up an interesting puzzle: Contrary to a prominent sociological group threat theory, Latinx defendants seem to be punished most harshly relative to white defendants in court jurisdictions where Latinx populations are smallest. In this Article, we briefly review literature on punishment disparities between Latinx and white...
Capital Punishment, Latinos, and the United States Legal System: Doing Justice or an Illusion of Justice, Legitimated Oppression, and Reinforcement of Structural Hierarchies
Abstract As the twenty-first century progresses, the influence of race, ethnicity, gender, and class in crime and punishment continues to be a pressing and polemic issue. With various antisocial control movements taking place, particularly in response to the Trump administration, the nature of crime and punishment is once again being redefined nationally and abroad. As in the past, this new...
The Direct and Indirect Effects of Immigration Enforcement on Latino Political Engagement
Abstract How does having a loved one threatened by detention and deportation impact political participation? Drawing on extant research demonstrating the mobilizing power of a threatening immigration environment, we develop a dynamic theory of what scholars elsewhere refer to as proximal contact. We argue that individuals with proximal connections to punitive immigration policy may be politically...