Crimmigration and the punishment of women: Evidence from Texas courts

Abstract

Recent research argues that the criminalization of immigration reflects broader social processes of membership and belonging, making some noncitizens deportable and others worthy of protection. Yet, while scholars suggest that both immigration and punishment are gendered, limited research scrutinizes gendered crimmigration on a large scale or explores how it operates in state courts. Using comprehensive data on all arrests in Texas from 2006 to 2018, I examine the role of gender, citizenship status, legal status, and race/ethnicity in the likelihood of being charged, convicted, and sentenced to incarceration among similarly situated defendants. Results indicate that in Texas courts, citizenship and legal status operate differently across gender categories. Among men, noncitizen status serves as a penalty in case processing, but women noncitizens, on average, receive leniency and have lower likelihood of conviction and incarceration than citizen women counterparts. I find that this result is largely driven by leniency for legal noncitizen women arrested for misdemeanor offenses. Undocumented women, however, receive a penalty relative to citizen women for felony offenses. I also find that among noncitizen defendants, Hispanic and white noncitizen men fare the worst in criminal case processing. These findings suggest both gendered and ethnoracialized pathways of noncitizen punishment.