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The aftermath of enforcement episodes for the children of immigrants

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Joanna Dreby  and
Eric Macias
Joanna Dreby*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, University at Albany, Albany, New York, USA
Eric Macias
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, University at Albany, Albany, New York, USA
*
Joanna Dreby, Department of Sociology, Arts & Sciences 318, University at Albany, 1400 Washington Ave, Albany NY 12222, USA., Email: jdreby@albany.edu
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Abstract

For 30 years, U.S. immigration policy has increasingly focused on enforcement. This article goes beyond cataloging the harms of such policies to document the processes by which they become more or less salient in the lives of children of immigrants over time. In-depth interviews with 86 young adults raised in New York show that enforcement policies shape children's lives either through lived experiences of enforcement episodes or through diffuse fears arising from indirect threats. Qualitative analysis of narratives of (a) deportations post-incarceration, (b) removals, (c) arrests and detentions (d) direct threats, and (e) diffuse fears identifies characteristics related to each that may affect children even after they age into adulthood.

Type
Articles
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 57 , Issue 1 , March 2023 , pp. 103 - 123
Copyright
© 2023 Law and Society Association.

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Footnotes

How to cite this article: Dreby, Joanna, and Eric Macias. 2023. “The Aftermath of Enforcement Episodes for the Children of Immigrants.” Law & Society Review 57(1): 103–123. https://doi.org/10.1111/lasr.12640

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