The Punishment/El Castigo

Undocumented Latinos and US Immigration Processing

Bibliographic Data

ID3619475
AuthorsRuth Gomberg‐muñoz (0000-0002-8296-0675, Schlumberger (Ireland), corresponding author), Ruth Gomberg-Muñoz
Year2015
Volume41
Issue14
Pages2235-2252
Publication date2015-12-06
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueNew Community (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0047-9586 • E-ISSN: 1469-9451
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/1369183x.2015.1056118
OpenAlexW1889361738
LanguageEN
Citations received12
References cited23

For undocumented people who become eligible for a US immigrant visa, the pathway to lawful status bifurcates around one central question: how did you get into the USA? While most visa overstayers can adjust their status within the USA, undocumented border crossers must leave the USA to change their status. When they do, all but a few trigger a 10-year bar—often called 'el castigo' in Spanish or 'the punishment'—on their return. This paper draws on a three-year ethnographic study to explore the process of legalisation for Latinos who entered and lived in the USA unlawfully. I pay particular attention to how 'grounds of inadmissibility' and federal criminal prosecutions for unauthorised entry disproportionately penalise working-class Latinos, creating a minefield of racialised obstacles to their lawful status. Together, I argue, racialised criminalisation and higher hurdles to lawful status amount to a one–two punch that makes it extraordinarily difficult for undocumented Latinos to ever change their status, even when they are eligible for an immigrant visa based on their marriage to US citizens

Criminology · Ethnography · Immigration · Political science · Shut down · Sociology · Engineering · Law · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Migration, Health and Trauma · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Psychology · Social Psychology

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