Obama’s Immigration Announcement and its Aftermath: Perpetuating the Myth of the “Criminal Alien”
On Border Criminologies, Yolanda Vázquez criticizes the myth of the “criminal alien” and their continued threat to the nation that permeated President Obama’s speech in November announcing his immigration initiatives:
“Boasting that the deportation of `criminal aliens’ during his administration was up 80 percent, Obama implied that `criminal aliens’ have been running rampant throughout the United States, causing violence and devastation. Even though unauthorized immigration is a civil immigration violation, President Obama’s speech conflated it with the current political trend, that unauthorized immigrants were `criminals;’ They are `dangerous’ for the mere act of crossing a border without permission. They have become a subset of the `criminal alien.’”
KJ