Legal Consciousness of Undocumented Latinos: Fear and Stigma as Barriers to Claims-Making for First- and 1.5-Generation Immigrants

This article examines the legal consciousness and incorporation experiences of undocumented immigrants in the United States. Although this population may be disaggregated along several axes, one central distinction among them is their age at migration. Those who migrated as adults live out their daily lives in different social contexts than those who migrated as children. Therefore, although all undocumented immigrants are legally banned, their identities, sense of belonging, and interpretation of their status vary. Based on ethnographic observations and in-depth interviews of Latino undocumented immigrants from 2001 to 2010, I examine how illegality is experienced differently by social position. The findings suggest that the role of life-stage at migration and work-versus-school contexts importantly inform immigrants' legal consciousness. Fear predominates in the legal consciousness of first-generation undocumented immigrants, while the legal consciousness of the 1.5 generation is more heavily infused with stigma. Fear and stigma are both barriers to claims-making, but they may affect undocumented immigrants' potential for collective mobilization in different ways. At a recent press conference in support of the DREAM Act,1 undocumented college students openly shared details about their lives as they eagerly waited for the event to begin. Off to the side, an older woman carried a stack of banners and smiled shyly every time our eyes met. I walked over to introduce myself, and after some chitchat she cautiously shared her story. Adela2 is the mother of one of the students who helped organize the press conference. This was the first time she had participated in such a public act, and she was nervous about being so visible. She and her family arrived in the United States from Mexico more than 14 years ago, but she has only recently started to participate in a local immigrant rights organization. After much prodding from her children, she joined them in their volunteer efforts. She hopes that under President Barack Obama's administration she and her family may finally have a pathway to lawful permanent residence. Adela was the only parent in the group of about 30 people. She had invited several other women to the press conference who attended meetings at the organization, but all had declined because they were too afraid of becoming targets for deportation. Meanwhile, the students proudly held up banners that made claims and tied their struggle to mainstream ideals: ''Our Dreams Can't Wait'' and ''My Dream, The American Dream.'' The visible contrast between Adela's behavior and that of the students was striking. Adela, whose demographics more closely match those of the imagined undocumented immigrant, is clearly afraid to step out of the shadows. Her children and their peers, on the other hand, seem unafraid to speak out in favor of policies that will help them and their families move out of the margins. This event, like so many other collective mobilization activities in support of undocumented immigrants, illustrates the difference in perspective, legal consciousness, and claims-making behaviors between undocumented immigrant youth and adults. Undocumented youth, many of whom are growing up and coming of age in the United States, are actively demanding full inclusion into U.S. society (Abrego 2008:560; Bloemraad & Trost 2008; Seif 2004). Undocumented adults, on the other hand, have mostly remained in the shadows. In fact, journalistic coverage (Bazar 2009) and a prominent Internet presence of various undocumented youth groups around the country suggest the greater visibility and political claims-making of youth compared to their adult counterparts. Politically, their participation in collective claims-making is important because it may lead to greater inclusion through legalization.3 However, their stratified participation suggests a diversity of experiences in what is often presumed to be a monolithic undocumented immigrant community. …