Mandatory detention for criminal convictions

The reproduction of racial inequality through U.S. immigration law

Dados Bibliográficos

ID7328404
AutoresSarah Tosh (0000-0002-7017-9777, Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice Rutgers University Camden New Jersey USA, autor correspondente)
Ano2022
Volume44
Fascículo1
Páginas70-97
Data de publicação2022-01-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoLaw & Policy (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0265-8240 • E-ISSN: 1467-9930
EditoraWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/lapo.12179
OpenAlexW4205169283
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas8
Referências citadas80

Since the late 1980s, immigrants convicted of certain criminal offenses have been subject to mandatory detention during their deportation proceedings. Due to court backlog and complicated cases, noncitizens mandatorily detained in this way can be held for years at a time, without any legal right to a bail hearing. While political rhetoric and policy aims of the past three decades have painted so‐called “criminal aliens” as a highly dangerous group from whom the American public needs protecting, the criminal convictions that invoke mandatory detention and likely deportation are actually quite diverse, in large part due to the expansion of the “aggravated felony” ground of deportation to include a wide variety of less serious crimes. Drawing from 40 interviews with lawyers and other legal actors in New York City's detained immigration court from 2017 to 2018, this article explores the effects of aggravated felony–based mandatory detention. I argue that in doubly punishing immigrants who have already served time for criminal convictions, the immigration system funnels criminalized noncitizens—particularly those from poor Black and Latinx communities—toward deportation, perpetuating inequality and upholding existing racial hierarchies

Criminal justice · Criminology · Deportation · Immigration · Immigration detention · Immigration law · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis · Law · Migration, Health and Trauma · Migration, Refugees, and Integration