Felicia Arriaga

Order Behind Crimmigration: ICE, Law Enforcement, and Resistance in America

In recent years, dozens of counties in North Carolina have partnered with federal law enforcement in the criminalization of immigration—what many have dubbed “crimmigration.” Southern border enforcement still monopolizes the national immigration debate, but immigration enforcement has become common within the United States as well. While Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations are a major part of American immigration enforcement, Felicia Arriaga maintains that ICE relies on an already well-established system—the use of local law enforcement and local governments to identify, incarcerate, and deport undocumented immigrants. Arriaga contends that the long-term partnership between local sheriffs and immigration law enforcement in places like North Carolina has created a form of racialized social control of the Latinx community. Arriaga uses data from five county sheriff’s offices and their governing bodies to trace the creation and subsequent normalization of ICE and local law enforcement partnerships. Arriaga argues that the methods used by these partnerships to control immigration are employed throughout the United States, but they have been particularly visible in North Carolina, where the Latinx population increased by 111 percent between 2000 and 2010. Arriaga’s evidence also reveals how Latinx communities are resisting and adapting to these systems.

Upcoming 2024 Book Events

3/19 Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences Author Meets Critic
April Book Talk at Epilogue Bookstore in Chapel Hill

August Author Meets Critic at the Society for the Study of Social Problems in Montreal, Canada

Praise and Reviews

2023-2024 Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences Outstanding Book Award

CHOICE Editors’ Pick for Jan. 2024

“A rich critique of the actors and organizations in North Carolina that facilitate crimmigration. . . . The text expertly demonstrates how all crimmigration is local. . . . [and] Arriaga excels in taking readers to lesser-known settings and contexts to consider how 287(g) was conceptualized and contested through the everyday machinations of local government and electoral politics”—Sociology of Race and Ethnicity

“An important regional study on the criminalization of immigration. . . . This volume will interest students in the fields of crimmigration, criminology, sociology, legal studies, and immigration studies. Highly recommended”—CHOICE

“Arriaga offers a novel and important contribution to contemporary research examining the interconnectedness of local law enforcement officials (LEOs) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).”—Ethnic and Racial Studies

“Behind Crimmigration explores the racialized effects and human costs of a local law enforcement agency’s decision to collaborate with ICE. . . . [A]n essential window into present politics.”—Inquest

“Behind Crimmigration is a deep dive into the messy local politics of immigration policy in the United States today. Through on-the-ground research and insightful analysis, Felicia Arriaga shows us that immigration policies—and immigration politics—develop far from Washington. Taking us into county commission meetings in North Carolina and giving us a close view of sheriff’s departments’ operations throughout the state, Arriaga uncovers the local politics that turn local cops into immigration agents. ICE calls them force multipliers, but to migrants across North Carolina, they are the entry point into the immigration prison and deportation pipeline—and the object of community resistance.”—César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández, Ohio State University, and author of Migrating to Prison and Crimmigration Law.

“I can’t emphasize enough how important it is for scholars and students to have access to the story Felicia Arriaga tells us about local immigration law enforcement in North Carolina. Based on a wealth of data and field research, Arriaga’s arguments about racialized social control add to the conversations surrounding immigration enforcement and tell a powerful story at the same time.”—Tanya Golash-Boza, author of Deported: Immigrant Policing, Disposable Labor and Global Capitalism

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2023 Book Events

4/27 at Lafayette College: https://calendar.lafayette.edu/node/63081
5/23 at Malaprop’s Bookstore/Cafe in Asheville, NC: https://www.malaprops.com/event/hybrid-behind-crimmigration-felicia-arriaga

5/25 in Charlotte, NC with the Levine Museum at the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library: https://www.museumofthenewsouth.org/events/what-is-it-going-to-take-behind-crimmigration/

5/27 in Raleigh, NC: Diamante Cultural Arts & Cultural Center | Fb live video: https://fb.watch/lrX5cOJLKk/?mibextid=l2pjGR and youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=D_Io7nRErnw

Read more about the tour here: https://uncpressblog.com/2023/05/22/coming-home-a-book-tour-in-nc/
9/13 CUNY Immigration Series: https://www.gc.cuny.edu/events/immigration-seminar-series-behind-crimmigration-ice-law-enforcement-and-resistance-america-dr
10/19 OAR Book Talk at John Jay College of Criminal Justice with Janay Cauthen from Families for Freedom

11/30 Duke University Race Workshop

ICE Touch Points

2019 National Changes

In 2019, new versions of the 287(g) Program began in Florida. These are Warrant Service Officer Programs. You can find fact sheets from the Immigrant Legal Resource Center in English and Spanish. The counties in NC that recently adopted these are: Alamance, Albemarle, Avery, Brunswick, Caldwell, Cleveland, Duplin, Lincoln, Nash, Randolph, Rockingham, and Yancey.

2018 Efforts in NC

2015 Map of 287(g) Counties in NC

Here is an in-progress storymap of some of my work. And a timeline of criminalization processes of immigrants at the intersection of the United States and North Carolina policies.