Respeta mí Existencia o Espera Resistencia: Mobilization and Political Participation of the Latino Immigrant Rights Movement Under Threat

Abstract

Current immigration law in the United States is amongst the harshest in our nation’s history, where for an immigrant, all roads come with the threat of deportation. This paper examines how the threat of deportation in Washington State and Arizona affects the Latino community. This paper measures levels of threat via local immigration law and the levels of cooperation between law enforcement and ICE. Utilizing interview data, I find that under increasing levels of threat, the community responds with heightened levels of political engagement. Additionally, under lower levels of threat of deportation, the community primarily engages in collective mobility services and local campaigns, whereas under high threat, the community additionally utilizes preemptive organization, alert networks, and national campaigns. I argue that due to both the drastic ways which the threat of deportation affects mobilization and fear amongst the Latino community, the threat of deportation is an act of state violence.