Title

Beware of Notarios: Neoliberal Governance of Immigrants as Crime Victims

Author(s)

Jamie Longazel, University of DaytonFollow
Benjamin Fleury-Steiner, University of Delaware

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-2013

Publication Source

Theoretical Criminology

Abstract

Drawing on David Garland’s (1996, 2001) observations about the ‘limits of the sovereign state’, we seek in this article to develop a critical understanding of the recent response in the USA to ‘notario fraud’—an unlawful act committed when a non-lawyer poses as an immigration attorney. While efforts to protect immigrants from fraud on their surface represent a counter to recent anti-immigrant policies, our analysis of materials distributed by what we term an anti-notario fraud apparatus suggests that such activity amounts to neoliberal governance. Specifically, we study immigrant advocacy groups’ discourse around the issue and argue that anti-notario efforts are akin to responsibilization.

We also study how law enforcement officials discuss the issue and theorize how a one-dimensional framing of notarios as villains supports the neoliberal regime by protecting the state’s sovereignty to manufacture what Nicholas De Genova (2002) has called ‘deportability’.

Inclusive pages

359-376

ISBN/ISSN

1362-4806

Comments

Permission documentation is on file.

Copyright

Copyright © 2013, the authors

Publisher

Sage Publications

Volume

17

Issue

3

Peer Reviewed

yes

eCommons Citation

Longazel, Jamie and Fleury-Steiner, Benjamin, "Beware of Notarios: Neoliberal Governance of Immigrants as Crime Victims" (2013). Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work Faculty Publications. 23.
https://ecommons.udayton.edu/soc_fac_pub/23