Lisa M. Martinez

Yes We Can: Latino Participation in Unconventional Politics.

This paper considers participation in unconventional politics and its determinants. In particular, analyses presented below focus on differences in low-risk protest activity among non-Latinos and Latinos of Mexican, Puerto Rican and Cuban origin. Central to this analysis is an examination of individual and network determinants of unconventional participation as well as determinants unique to immigrant populations: citizenship and generation. I find that, contrary to theoretical predictions, Latinos are less likely to protest relative to non-Latinos. There are also significant differences in participation by ethnicity: Latinos of Mexican and Puerto Rican descent are more likely to protest than their Cuban counterparts. Citizenship and generational status also influence the likelihood of political involvement suggesting these are factors that not only shape conventional political behavior but unconventional participation.

Dreams Deferred The Impact of Legal Reforms on Undocumented Latino Youth

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals was enacted in August 2012, allowing undocumented youth who meet eligibility criteria to live and work in the United States for a period of 2 years. In April 2013, the Governor of Colorado signed the Advancing Students for a Stronger Economy Tomorrow bill granting undocumented students reduced tuition in the state’s public universities. In the absence of comprehensive immigration reform, this article addresses how legal reforms affect undocumented Latina/o youth in the context of a shifting political landscape in Colorado. Specifically, I address how these reforms affect immigrant youths’ access to higher education and employment opportunities. Data from qualitative interviews with 18 Latina/o undocumented youth ages 16 to 25 show that, while immigration reforms have created some opportunities, the policies’ limitations leave immigrant youth in “holding patterns” that delay or impede their access to higher education and, consequently, upward mobility. I also shed light on their perceptions of these reforms.

“Flowers From the Same Soil”: Latino Solidarity in the Wake of the 2006 Immigrant Mobilizations

This article examines the effects of collective action on the development of Latino ethnic solidarity among immigrant, naturalized, and U.S.-born Latinos. The article reveals how ethnic solidarity came about from the perspective and with the help of grassroots organizers who coordinated the 2006 immigrant rights mobilizations. Through 55 interviews with grassroots organizers from immigrant and Latino rights groups, elected officials, and union and religious leaders throughout Colorado, it is shown that the immigrant rights marches strengthened a sense of ethnic solidarity among immigrant and native-born Latinos as the latter came to realize that they, too, were becoming targets of anti-immigrant rhetoric that became more pervasive in the midst of the immigration debate. The interview data show that the renewed sense of ethnic solidarity served to foment support for collective action. By building on prior work addressing the determinants of ethnic solidarity and collective action, these findings reveal the potential for organizers and political leaders to emphasize common goals among Latinos rather than ethnic, political, and class-based cleavages that are often the topic of political discourse.

HOW DO POLITICAL CONTEXTS SHAPE UNDOCUMENTED YOUTH MOVEMENTS? EVIDENCE FROM THREE IMMIGRANT DESTINATIONS*

Drawing on research spanning ten years in three immigrant destinations—Los Angeles, Denver, and Atlanta—we address the question, “How do political contexts shape undocumented youth movements?” To do so, we bring into dialogue social movements and immigration scholarship by providing a framework for understanding undocumented youth activism. Building on political opportunity theory in social movements and segmented assimilation theory in migration studies, we advance the notion of localized political contexts: contexts of varying levels of antagonism and accommodation toward immigrants, which shape the emergence and character of undocumented youth movements. We argue that variegated political, legal, and discursive landscapes shape undocumented activism in three ways: (1) the claims that are made; (2) the targets for these claims; and (3) the strategies and tactics the movement adopts. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of undocumented youth movements given the increasingly hostile political...

Is Love Color-blind? Racial Blind Spots and Latinas’ Romantic Relationships:

The racial stratification literature is rife with examples of how color-blindness has become a dominant ideology among Whites to deny the continuing significance of race at work, school, and in everyday life. Less understood are the racial ideologies deployed by people of color. Drawing on 20 in-depth interviews, we examine how college-educated Latinas acknowledge or deny the significance of race and racial hierarchies in decisions about whom to date. We find Latinas who stated an openness to dating men of all racial/ethnic backgrounds both acknowledged racism and its impact on their own lives and also held clear racial preferences. Additionally, participants used negative racial tropes about Black and Asian men to exclude them as romantic partners while also self-racializing to explain White men’s seeming reluctance to date them. To explain our findings, we apply the concept racial blind spots to show how participants simultaneously dismissed and drew upon color-blind ideology to justify patterns of racial exclusion. As we argue, racial blind spots explain how members of minoritized groups internalize aspects of the dominant racial ideology, involuntarily upholding the very system that oppresses them.

The bright lights: The development of oppositional consciousness among DACAmented Latino youth:

This study asks the question, “How do diverse social spaces support or constrain the development of oppositional consciousness among DACAmented Latina/o youth?” Our analysis is based on 40 in-depth interviews with Latina/o youth and young adults living in Colorado who received a two-year reprieve from deportation and work authorization through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program enacted in 2012. The findings indicate the development of three points along a continuum of oppositional consciousness, which we term latent, emergent, and manifest. The implications of this study reveal how social spaces inside and outside of schools in a non-traditional destination can support or constrain the oppositional consciousness of liminally legal DACA recipients.

Dreams and Nightmares: Immigration Policy, Youth, and Families. By Marjorie S. Zatz, and Nancy Rodriguez. Oakland: University of California Press, 2015. CCXVI, 216 pages.

Dreams and Nightmares: Immigration Policy, Youth, and Families is a compelling new monograph by Marjorie Zatz and Nancy Rodriguez. Rich in historical context and infused with insights from frontline experts, the authors use the framework of prosecutorial discretion to highlight the ways in which laws and their enforcement can either help or hinder immigrant communities. Melding archival data and interviews with attorneys, government officials, immigrant and child welfare advocates, and policy experts, the book elucidates how the immigration enforcement system not only shapes but, in many cases, devastates immigrants’ lives. Following an introduction and discussion of the historical context in chapter one, Zatz and Rodriguez begin chapter two with an overview of prosecutorial discretion in criminal and immigration law. They note how shifts in immigration policy from the 1970s to the 1990s changed the ground rules for what are considered deportable offenses. These shifts not only curtailed judges’ ability to take into account the impact of deportation on US citizen family members but also limited consideration of humanitarian appeals and broadened the category of deportable offenses. Furthermore, the creation of the Department of Homeland Security post-9/11 and the concentration of immigration authority in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) resulted in a sea change in institutional culture from one granting certain classes of immigrants special care such as veterans, nursing mothers, or the elderly, to one characterized by detainers, deportation, and enhanced border enforcement. From there, Zatz and Rodriguez focus on differences between how the law on the books versus the law in action mitigate harm or exacerbate vulnerabilities experienced by immigrant youth. While many excellent books have been written on the topic of undocumented immigrants and, in particular, undocumented youth, the authors state their goal is not to replicate existing studies but, rather, to offer new perspectives about how structural factors affect those from the least precarious status to the most. In chapter three, the authors address how the lack of comprehensive immigration reform affects mixed-status families where some members are US citizens and others are undocumented. In particular, they highlight Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), the executive action under Obama that provided relief from deportation and work authorization to young people who met certain qualifications. As a form of prosecutorial action, DACA provides life-changing opportunities such as access to higher education and better-paying jobs, thereby mitigating harm caused by recipients’ precarious legal status. It fails, however, to mitigate other vulnerabilities by denying financial aid and subjecting recipients to a renewal process that is not only costly but also a constant reminder of their legal liminality. Chapter four follows in a similar vein, showing the psychological and emotional consequences on immigrant and UScitizen children whose parents are detained or deported. Although prosecutorial discretion is intended to protect families from removal based on considerations about the harm inflicted on children, the authors concede that it has largely failed immigrant families. Moreover, the lack of coordination between the child welfare and immigration systems means that children are often removed from their families, especially in