Criminalizing the Undocumented: Examining the Punitive Turn Towards Undocumented Migrants and the Resulting Constitutional Rights Violations

Abstract

During the last two decades, anti-immigrant ideology has gripped the public's imagination, exerting tremendous influence on immigration enforcement practices. This ideology supports the view that undocumented migrants are not subject to equal protection under the U.S. Constitution. Following the work of critical legal scholar, Juliet Strumpf, this thesis argues that this antiimmigrant ideology of "crimmigration" is being implemented through detention and deportation practices that routinely violate the right of Due Process guaranteed to illegal aliens by the U.S. Constitution. As highly revered as the Constitution is by U.S. citizens, the courts, legislative and executive branches of the government, and the general public are loathe to extend its protection to non-citizens. This phenomenon of crimmigration leads to practices, such as detainment of undocumented immigrants, why systematically violate Constitutional rights on a massive scale.