Week 7 - Jessica Garza A04

Starting in 1980’s the privatization of prisons as well as the criminalization of immigrants has heavily influenced society. According to Brown in “Refugees, Rights, and Race: How Legal Status Shapes Liberian Immigrants’ Relationship with the State” Legal status determines not only how long a person can remain in the U.S. but also under what conditions, doing what work, and receiving which social and economic supports.  Although immigration has been criminalized and has a stigma surrounding it, the severity of the crime is actually minor. According to Ackerman & Furman in “The Criminalization of immigration and the privatization of the immigration detention: implications for justice”, Crossing the U.S. border is on the same severity level as filing your taxes late. However, the systems in place which create criminalization of immigrants heavily propell prosecution. The systems in place make it difficult for immigrants to make their own money through a stable job or even get a driver’s license to operate a car, which is highly illegal without a license.

The criminalization of immigration has been on the rise especially with the environmental societal and political climate which influences our day to day lives. The structure of prisons and detention centers has changed dramatically. The neo-liberal era has established Globalization and Privatization which has caused many different services previously provided by the government to be shifted to the responsibility of the private conglomerates. The shift also includes industry, the prison-complex, as well as other manufacturing corporations. The prisons claim to be lifting the trouble of the responsibility off the government and claims to provide a hospitable environment for the imprisoned, however, they do this to make profit. This is made possible through careful planning by profit seeking prison corporations such as, Private prisons profit because 1. Companies give millions in campaign contributions to state and federal politicians 2.various lobby legislatures and the US Congress 3. relationships and networks with specific organizations.

Immigration has become criminalized because of the influences of systems and neoliberalism within society created by economic, political, and social complexes. The increase of alienation and seeing immigrants as ‘other’ has pushed this concept of the criminality of immigration onto a larger narrative.