Remnants of illegality

Daca, legal status, and unlearning illegality

Bibliographic Data

ID3607739
AuthorsJozef Callán Robles (0009-0000-0316-6207, University of California, Irvine, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume51
Issue9
Pages2203-2221
Publication date2025-05-28
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueNew Community (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0047-9586 • E-ISSN: 1469-9451
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/1369183x.2024.2393655
OpenAlexW4401778033
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited40

This paper examines transitions between legal statuses as an ongoing negotiated process between undocumented embodiments and legal realities. Rather than viewing legal statuses as mutually exclusive states of existence, I contend that transitioning through statuses leaves behind what I call remnants of illegality – lingering effects of previous legal designations that continue to shape a person’s behavior and worldview even after the person is no longer in that status. Interviews with 20 formerly undocumented/DACA Californians reveal that the remnants of illegality alter participants’ understanding of legal status, everyday behaviors, and understandings of self. Although participants struggle to bridge the gap between their remnants of illegality and legal realities, their stories suggest that they actively work to unlearn these remnants, indicating their potential impermanence. Broadly, these findings propose a new concept for understanding the impacts of illegality and also challenge assumptions about legal status as an idealistic end-goal solution to the condition of illegality

Criminology · Impermanence · Legal status · Political science · Sociology · History · Law · Migration, Health and Trauma · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Psychology · Sex work and related issues · Social Psychology

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