Social Death: Racialized Rightlessness and the Criminalization of the Unprotected

237 Pages·2012·0.61 MB·English

by  Lisa Marie Cacho

social Death
NATION OF NEWCOMERS: Immigrant
History as American History
General Editors: Matthew Jacobson and Werner Sollors
Beyond the Shadow of Camptown: Immigrant Rights in the
Korean Military Brides in America Shadows of Citizenship
Ji-Yeon Yuh Edited by Rachel Ida Buff
Feeling Italian: The Art of Rough Writing: Ethnic Authorship
Ethnicity in America in Theodore Roosevelt’s America
Thomas J. Ferraro Aviva F. Taubenfeld
Constructing Black Selves: The Third Asiatic Invasion: Empire and
Caribbean American Narratives Migration in Filipino America, 1898–1946
and the Second Generation Rick Baldoz
Lisa D. McGill
Race for Citizenship: Black Orientalism
Transnational Adoption: A Cultural and Asian Uplift from Pre-Emancipation
Economy of Race, Gender, and Kinship to Neoliberal America
Sara K. Dorow Helen Heran Jun
Immigration and American Popular Entitled to Nothing: The Struggle
Culture: An Introduction for Immigrant Health Care in
Jeffrey Melnick and Rachel Rubin the Age of Welfare Reform
Lisa Sun-Hee Park
From Arrival to Incorporation:
Migrants to the U.S. in a Global Era The Slums of Aspen: The War against
Edited by Elliott R. Barkan, Hasia Immigrants in America’s Eden
Diner, and Alan M. Kraut Lisa Sun-Hee Park and David Naguib Pellow
Migrant Imaginaries: Latino Cultural Social Death: Racialized Rightlessness and
Politics in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands the Criminalization of the Unprotected
Alicia Schmidt Camacho Lisa Marie Cacho
The Force of Domesticity: Filipina
Migrants and Globalization
Rhacel Salazar Parreñas
Social Death
Racialized Rightlessness and the
Criminalization of the Unprotected
Lisa Marie Cacho
a
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York and London
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York and London
www.nyupress.org
© 2012 by New York University
All rights reserved
References to Internet websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing.
Neither the author nor New York University Press is responsible for URLs
that may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cacho, Lisa Marie.
Social death : racialized rightlessness and the criminalization of the unprotected / Lisa Marie
Cacho.
p. cm. —  (Nation of newcomers: immigrant history as American history)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8147-2375-3 (cl : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-8147-2376-0 (pb : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-8147-2377-7 (ebook)
ISBN 978-0-8147-2542-9 (ebook)
1.  Immigrants—Civil rights—United States. 2.  Minorities—Civil rights—United States.
3.  Illegal aliens—United States. 4.  Marginality, Social—United States. 5.  Criminal liability—
United States. 6.  Racism—United States. 7.  Illegality—Social aspects—United States.  I.
Title.
JV6456.C33 2012
323.173—dc23 2012024957
New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper,
and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability.
We strive to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials
to the greatest extent possible in publishing our books.
Manufactured in the United States of America
c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
p 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To David Coyoca, for everything . . .
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: The Violence of Value 1
1. White Entitlement and Other People’s Crimes 35
2. Beyond Ethical Obligation 61
3. Grafting Terror onto Illegality 97
4. Immigrant Rights versus Civil Rights 115
Conclusion: Racialized Hauntings of the Devalued Dead 147
Notes 169
Index 213
About the Author 224
>> vii
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Acknowledgments
This has been a difficult book for me to write, and because it was, I had to
rely on many people during all its stages. While I claim all its flaws and short-
comings, the people I acknowledge in these pages helped me conceptualize
and clarify all its best and most interesting parts. First and foremost, I would
like to acknowledge Liz Gonzalez, my first-rate research assistant; I would
not have been able to come close to deadlines without her. I extend my ap-
preciation to her with deep sincerity. Kevin Dolan’s early edits provided me
with expert help in clarifying my arguments and making the book clearer
overall. His assistance, too, was invaluable.
Eric Zinner, the best editor ever, has been more than supportive of this
project. I am so grateful for all his help, his patience, and his persistence. I
also thank Eric for choosing my excellent reviewers. My anonymous review-
ers and my non-anonymous reviewer, James Kyung-Jin Lee, pushed the book
in important directions I didn’t even know it could go. I believe it is a much
better book because of their comments and critiques, recommendations and
encouragement, and I really appreciate the care and attention that each per-
son provided.
At the University of Illinois, I’ve been lucky to have support from the
Center on Democracy in a Multiracial Society and from the Illinois Program
for Research in the Humanities, where I completed my postdoctoral fellow-
ship. I thank the university for granting me humanities release time, and I
thank the Latina/Latino Studies department for awarding me much needed
course release right before tenure. I’ve been fortunate and privileged to work
with exceptional faculty on this campus. I would like to recognize my col-
leagues Ricky T. Rodríguez, Eileen Díaz McConnell, Mireya Loza, Jonathan
Inda, Julie Dowling, Edna Viruell-Fuentes, Gilberto Rosa, Alejandro Lugo,
Rolando Romero, Arlene Torres, William Berry, Yutian Wong, Junaid Rana,
Moon-kie Jung, Susan Koshy, Yoon Pak, Nancy Abelman, Esther Lee, Caro-
line Yang, Augusto Espiritu, Lisa Nakamura, Kent Ono, Karen Flynn, Ruth
Nicole Brown, David Roediger, Antonia Darder, Jose Capino, Adrian Burgos,
Dara Goldman, Clarence Lang, Erik McDuffy, Mark Perry, C. L. Cole, and
Sundiata Cha-Jua. I also thank Siobhan Somerville for making the campus
>> ix