Immigration Article of the Day: Abolishing the Toxic ‘Tough-on-Immigration’ Paradigm by Felipe De Jesus Hernández

Abolishing the Toxic ‘Tough-on-Immigration’ Paradigm by Felipe De Jesus Hernández, Harvard Kennedy School Journal of Hispanic Policy, 2019

Abstract

This article contextualizes and examines the tough-on-immigration paradigm that has driven both Republican and Democratic immigration policies. First, this article traces the evolution of the sociopolitical construct of the undeserving criminal alien, a non-White person deemed a threat to White free personhood, to demonstrate how this construct legitimizes tough-on-immigration policy prescriptions. Second, the article demonstrates how elected officials since the Reagan administration have crafted immigration policies solely through the tough-on- immigration paradigm as a tactic to obtain political power. Third, this article illustrates how both political parties leading up to the 2020 presidential election continue to preserve the tough-on-immigration paradigm even in opposition to the Trump administration. Finally, the article proposes a new reparative justice paradigm for immigration policy that follows the lead of organizers and those directly impacted in order to address the root causes of human displacement.

KJ