Policing Immigrants
The Chicago Series in Law and Society
EDITED BY JOHN M. CONLEY AND LYNN MATHER
Also in the series:
THE SEDUCTIONS OF QUANTIFICATION: MEASURING HUMAN RIGHTS, VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN, AND SEX TRAFFICKING by Sally Engle Merry
INVITATION TO LAW AND SOCIETY: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF REAL LAW, SECOND EDITION by Kitty Calavita
PULLED OVER: HOW POLICE STOPS DEFINE RACE AND CITIZENSHIP by Charles R. Epp, Steven Maynard-Moody, and Donald Haider-Markel
THE THREE AND A HALF MINUTE TRANSACTION: BOILERPLATE AND THE LIMITS OF CONTRACT DESIGN by Mitu Gulati and Robert E. Scott
EVERYDAY LAW ON THE STREET: CITY GOVERNANCE IN AN AGE OF DIVERSITY by Mariana Valverde
THIS IS NOT CIVIL RIGHTS: DISCOVERING RIGHTS TALKS IN 1939 AMERICA by George I. Lovell
FAILING LAW SCHOOLS by Brian Z. Tamanaha
LAWYERS IN PRACTICE: ETHICAL DECISION MAKING IN CONTEXT Edited by Leslie C. Levin and Lynn Mather
COLLATERAL KNOWLEDGE: LEGAL REASONING IN THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL MARKETS by Annelise Riles
SPECIALIZING THE COURTS by Lawrence Baum
ASIAN LEGAL REVIVALS: LAWYER-COMPRADORS AND COLONIAL STRATEGIES IN THE RESHAPING OF ASIAN STATES by Yves Dezalay and Bryant G. Garth
THE LANGUAGE OF STATUTES: LAWS AND THEIR INTERPRETATION by Lawrence M. Solan
BELONGING IN AN ADOPTED WORLD by Barbara Yngvesson
MAKING RIGHTS REAL: ACTIVISTS, BUREAUCRATS, AND THE CREATION OF THE LEGALISTIC STATE by Charles R. Epp
LAWYERS ON THE RIGHT: PROFESSIONALIZING THE CONSERVATIVE COALITION by Ann Southworth
ARGUING WITH TRADITION: THE LANGUAGE OF LAW IN HOPI TRIBAL COURT by Justin B. Richland
SPEAKING OF CRIME: THE LANGUAGE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE by Lawrence M. Solan and Peter M. Tiersma
HUMAN RIGHTS AND GENDER VIOLENCE: TRANSLATING INTERNATIONAL LAW INTO SOCIAL JUSTICE by Sally Engle Merry
JUST WORDS, SECOND EDITION: LAW, LANGUAGE, AND POWER by John M. Conley and William M. OBarr
DISTORTING THE LAW: POLITICS, MEDIA, AND THE LITIGATION CRISIS by William Haltom and Michael McCann
JUSTICE IN THE BALKANS: PROSECUTING WAR CRIMES IN THE HAGUE TRIBUNAL by John Hagan
RIGHTS OF INCLUSION: LAW AND IDENTITY IN THE LIFE STORIES OF AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES by David M. Engel and Frank W. Munger
THE INTERNATIONALIZATION OF PALACE WARS: LAWYERS, ECONOMISTS, AND THE CONTEST TO TRANSFORM LATIN AMERICAN STATES by Yves Dezalay and Bryant G. Garth
FREE TO DIE FOR THEIR COUNTRY: THE STORY OF THE JAPANESE AMERICAN DRAFT RESISTERS IN WORLD WAR II by Eric L. Muller
OVERSEERS OF THE POOR: SURVEILLANCE, RESISTANCE, AND THE LIMITS OF PRIVACY by John Gilliom
PRONOUNCING AND PERSEVERING: GENDER AND THE DISCOURSES OF DISPUTING IN AN AFRICAN ISLAMIC COURT by Susan F. Hirsch
THE COMMON PLACE OF LAW: STORIES FROM EVERYDAY LIFE by Patricia Ewick and Susan S. Silbey
THE STRUGGLE FOR WATER: POLITICS, RATIONALITY, AND IDENTITY IN THE AMERICAN SOUTHWEST by Wendy Nelson Espeland
DEALING IN VIRTUE: INTERNATIONAL COMMERCIAL ARBITRATION AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF A TRANSNATIONAL LEGAL ORDER by Yves Dezalay and Bryant G. Garth
RIGHTS AT WORK: PAY EQUITY REFORM AND THE POLITICS OF LEGAL MOBILIZATION by Michael W. McCann
THE LANGUAGE OF JUDGES by Lawrence M. Solan
REPRODUCING RAPE: DOMINATION THROUGH TALK IN THE COURTROOM by Gregory M. Matoesian
GETTING JUSTICE AND GETTING EVEN: LEGAL CONSCIOUSNESS AMONG WORKING-CLASS AMERICANS by Sally Engle Merry
RULES VERSUS RELATIONSHIPS: THE ETHNOGRAPHY OF LEGAL DISCOURSE by John M. Conley and William M. OBarr
Policing Immigrants
Local Law Enforcement on the Front Lines
DORIS MARIE PROVINE, MONICA W. VARSANYI, PAUL G. LEWIS, AND SCOTT H. DECKER
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS
CHICAGO AND LONDON
Doris Marie Provine is professor emerita in the School of Social Transformation at Arizona State University. Monica W. Varsanyi is associate professor of political science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY, and on the doctoral faculties of geography and criminal justice at the CUNY Graduate Center. Paul G. Lewis is associate professor in the School of Politics and Global Studies at Arizona State University. Scott H. Decker is the Foundation Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Arizona State University.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
2016 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 2016.
Printed in the United States of America
25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 1 2 3 4 5
ISBN -13: 978-0-226-36304-2 (cloth)
ISBN -13: 978-0-226-36318-9 (paper)
ISBN -13: 978-0-226-36321-9 (e-book)
DOI : 10.7208/chicago/9780226363219.001.0001
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Provine, Doris Marie, author. | Varsanyi, Monica, 1971 author. | Lewis, Paul George, 1966 author. | Decker, Scott H., author.
Title: Policing immigrants : local law enforcement on the front lines / Doris Marie Provine, Monica W. Varsanyi, Paul G. Lewis, and Scott H. Decker.
Other titles: Chicago series in law and society.
Description: Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2016. | Series: Chicago series in law and society | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015041262 | isbn 9780226363042 (cloth : alk. paper) | isbn 9780226363189 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780226363219 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Immigration enforcementUnited States. | United StatesEmigration and immigrationGovernment policy. | Central-local government relationsUnited States. | ImmigrantsLegal status, laws, etc.United States.
Classification: LCC JV 6483 . P 77 2016 | DDC 364.3086/9120973dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015041262
This paper meets the requirements of ANSI / NISO z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).
Contents
Writing a book about how local communities are responding to the call to become more involved in enforcing federal immigration law is a little like trying to photograph a flock of birds flying in all directions. Everything is in motion, including the federal governments own policies and practices. However, the issue is too important to bypass. We basically took a series of still photos from different methodological angles and examined them in light of our mix of expertise in geography, law, political science, and criminology. Our hope is that we have captured the variations in basic flight patterns that communities are taking and that we have offered a reasonably definitive picture of the multijurisdictional patchwork that is contemporary immigration enforcement at the local level.
Fortunately, we had a lot of help in conducting our research and putting this book together. Early on we were lucky to gain a very useful interview with Merrick Bobb, executive director of the Police Assessment Resource Center based in Los Angeles. During the various stages of the project, we benefited greatly from the assistance of a series of top-notch graduate and undergraduate students, many since graduated, who entered massive amounts of data into spread sheets, conducted research on various topics connected with our case studies, transcribed interviews, tracked down previous studies, organized our citations, and even accompanied one of the senior researchers in part of the interviewing phase of our work. We are very grateful to Jana Benson, Robert Davis, Michael Einstein, Chantal Fahmy, Sam Frank, Gabriel Ferreyra-Orozco, Mily Kao, Meghan McDowell, Richard K. Moule Jr., Jeffrey Ober, Eryn ONeal, Lorraine Phillips, Denisse Roca Servat, Melanie Taylor, Stephanie Wakefield, Michael Walker, Amanda Wintersieck, and Briana Wright. As the project neared completion, Cindy Gorn, our cartographer, produced the various maps that appear in this volume.
