Race, Law, and the Production of Deportability: Black Immigrants at the Intersection of Criminal and Immigration Enforcement

This project examines how deportability for Black immigrants is produced through institutional practices that intersect policing, courts, and immigration enforcement—often operating without direct federal contact. Focusing on Nigerian and Jamaican immigrants in New York City, the study investigates how routine policing, discretionary decision-making, and institutional collaborations generate a social and structural condition of deportability experienced as anticipation, surveillance, and constrained life choices. Using qualitative interviews with immigrants and legal professionals across varying exposures to criminal justice contact, the research analyzes how ostensibly race-neutral laws and processes produce racialized vulnerability and how immigrants navigate these risks in daily life.