Stratified Entry into Illegality: How Immigration Policy Shapes Being Undocumented

Abstract Research shows that legal status is a critical axis of stratification in the United States but is less clear about the variably permeable boundaries around illegality and the systematic ways in which migrants are channeled into and out of the liminal states of illegality. Drawing on analysis of 105 interviews with a diverse group of undocumented or formerly undocumented immigrant young adults in New York City collected in 2018–19, we introduce the concept of stratified entry into illegality to illustrate how migrants’ nationality, race, and socioeconomic status shape their mode of entry which, in turn, shapes opportunities to adjust legal status. Our comparison of migrants who entered the United States without inspection and those who overstayed visas reveals key differences in experience of illegality, including fear of deportation and future plans. We discuss the role of mandatory re-entry bans and hardship waivers on immigrants’ relationships, the “fix” of advance parole for the more privileged Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients, and the gendered and racialized risks and pressures faced by visa overstayers seeking to adjust their status through marriage. Our comparison of undocumented young adults with and without DACA across mode of entry demonstrates how DACA serves as a class- and race-based filtering mechanism. We embed analysis of stratified entry into illegality within the US immigration regime and a global regime of racialized criminalization of migrants rooted in colonial and neocolonial relations of power and extraction.