Title

Beware of Notarios: Neoliberal Governance of Immigrants as Crime Victims

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.

Publisher

Sage Publications

Volume

17

Issue

3

Peer Reviewed

yes

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