What is Crimmigration?
Crimmigration is a term introduced by Juliet Stumpf (2006) which signals the intersection of immigration law and criminal law through the expanding role of police enforcement and surveillance -- both within communities and on national borders. It includes the legal consequences of criminalizing immigration and deporting immigrants.
Introductory Video
The following short documentaries highlight the pressing issues of criminalizing immigration:
The Facility from Floodlight Productions on Vimeo:
Directed by Maya Cueva, the film “Ale Libre,” details the story of Alejandra Pablos, a courageous immigrant organizing against her own deportation case:
Find Books
"Crimmigration: The Presumption of Illegality and the Criminalization of Immigrants" by Location: Book Chapter Available OnlinePublication Date: 2020The relationship between immigration and crime is at the forefront of current political and public discourse.
Crimmigration under international protection : constructing criminal law as governmentality by Location: Available OnlinePublication Date: 2023By exploring crimmigration at its intersection with international refugee law, this book exposes crimmigration as a system focused on the governance of territorially present migrants, which internalizes the impracticability of removal and replaces expulsion with domestic policing.
Crimmigration in the Age of COVID-19 by Location: Available OnlinePublication Date: 2023Contributes to understanding the intersection of public health and crimmigration, and border penologies during these exceptional times.
"The injustices of crimmigration: Discretion, detention, and deportation" by Location: Book Chapter Available OnlinePublication Date: 2022The structural violence and injustices created and exacerbated by crimmigration, the intertwining of federal, state, and local criminal justice systems with the federal civil immigration system in the United States
Find Articles
The following articles are a selection of the many articles available through BU Libraries:
- "Racializing Crimmigration: Structural Racism, Colorblindness, and the Institutional Production of Immigrant Criminality" by Amada Armenta (2017). Available here.
- "The expansion of 'crimmigration,' mass detention, and deportation" by Cecila Menjívar et. al (2018). Available here.
- "The creeping cruelty of Australian crimmigration law" by Mary Crock and Kate Bones (2022). Available here.
- "Crimmigration Practices and Narratives Resisting and Justifying Mass Deportation in the Central Valley of California" by Yajaira Ceciliano-Navarro (2024). Available here.
