“They say it’s a crime for us to be here”: Latinx reflections on the myth of the “criminal immigrant” in the Trump era

Abstract

Media and public discourse perpetuate the myth that immigrants—particularly those from Latin America and the undocumented—are crime-prone. Numerous empirical studies refute this. Fewer studies examine how Latinx communities internalize these faulty associations, or how they perceive criminality of other Latinx people. We address two research questions: How do first- and second-generation Latinx individuals conceptualize immigration-related offenses (e.g., driving without a license or working without authorization) in relation to criminality? How do they view their own law-breaking behavior and that of other first- and second-generation Latinx people? To answer these questions, we analyze data from focus groups in a diverse South Florida community with a large indigenous Guatemalan-Maya population. We find participants’ framing of their own immigration-related offenses, like working without authorization or driving without a license, can be understood through the lens of techniques of neutralization. We also find participants exhibited a unique “immigrant legal consciousness” in which immigration-related law-breaking is distinct from “mainstream” state-centered definitions of criminal behavior.