“The Price of Being Mexican”: Sentencing Disparities Between Noncitizen Mexican and Non-Mexican Latinos in the Federal Courts

Logue, Melissa A.

doi:10.1177/0739986309347447

Cited by 25 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Despite sentencing reforms and laws targeted at producing equitable treatment, scholarly responsiveness to the matter continues to find unwarranted disparities based on a number of extralegal factors. Although much of the attention has focused on disparities predicated on race/ethnicity, results from an increasing number of studies are suggesting an even greater need to investigate the influence of citizenship status (Logue 2009;Demuth 2002;Hartley and Armendariz 2011;Wolfe, Pyrooz and Spohn 2011;Light 2014). In fact, Light (2014) found that not only were noncitizens treated more harshly at sentencing but she also found that disparity between citizens and noncitizens at punishment was larger than the disparity between white and minority offenders.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While some studies found no evidence of an influence of citizenship on sentence outcomes (Everett and Wojkiewicz 2002;Feldmeyer et al 2015) the results of others (Wolfe et al 2011;Light 2014;Wu and D'Angelo 2014) detect sentencing variation grounded on the citizenship status of the defendant. A smaller, but growing body of sentencing research (Iles 2009;Logue 2009;Orrick and Piquero 2015) has gone beyond citizenship status to explore the effects of national origins. Iles (2009), for example, disaggregated the legal alien category in her study into four groups (South Americans/Mexican immigrants; Dominican Republic; Caribbean nations; and all other countries.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Geography and Sentencing: Does Country of Citizenship Influence Sentence Longevity?

Iles¹,

Adegun²

2018

Int. J. Criminol. Sociol.

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Contentious debates on immigrants in the United States has led to growing interest in their treatment in the criminal justice system. Much of what is known, however, springs from research that treats immigrants as a homogeneous group. The lumping of all immigrants into one category potentially mask variances in sentencing based on national origins. The current study disaggregates federal sentencing data to explore whether length of sentence differs by the defendants' geographical region of citizenship. After controlling for a number of legal and extra-legal factors, sentences imposed upon Mexican citizens were found to be longer than sentences meted out to defendants who are citizens of other countries. Evidence suggesting that national origin has a stronger influence on sentence length than race/ethnicity and legal status was also detected. Implications of the findings and directions for future research are discussed.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geography and Sentencing: Does Country of Citizenship Influence Sentence Longevity?

Iles¹,

Adegun²

2018

Int. J. Criminol. Sociol.

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“…enhancement of law enforcement under the Southwest Border Initiative). Coupled with the war on drugs, these efforts have increased the attention on illegal border traffic and resulted in an explosive number of immigration prosecutions in federal courts (Logue, 2009). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Defending the Homeland: Judicial Sentencing Practices for Federal Immigration Offenses

Hartley¹,

Tillyer²

2011

Justice Quarterly

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In the last decade, immigration prosecutions in federal court have increased 165%, with immigration offenses comprising over 28% of the federal criminal caseload in 2008. Despite this increase, research has yet to fully examine the sentencing outcomes for these offenders. Exploration of sentencing outcomes for immigration offenders is particularly salient due to the racial/ethnic composition of these defendants and the documented history of disparate treatment of minorities at this decision point. To explicate these issues, we examine the sentence length of immigration cases to assess the impact of legal, extra-legal, and case-processing factors. We further disaggregate by offense type to explore if correlates of sentencing are consistent across specific categories of immigration violations. Finally, we examine southwestern border districts, which process over 70% of all cases, to assess their specific sentencing practices. Model results, theoretical implications, and avenues for future research are also discussed.

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“…Logue () takes the opposite approach. Her investigation looked at Mexicans compared to non‐Mexican Latinos in federal courts but limited the analysis to only noncitizens, thus precluding an examination of Hispanic ethnicity and citizenship.…”

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confidence: 99%

The New Face of Legal Inequality: Noncitizens and the Long-Term Trends in Sentencing Disparities across U.S. District Courts, 1992–2009

Light

2014

Law Soc Rev

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In the wake of mass immigration from Latin America, legal scholars have shifted focus from racial to ethnic inequality under the law. A series of studies now suggest that Hispanics may be the most disadvantaged group in U.S. courts, yet this body of work has yet to fully engage the role of citizenship status. The present research examines the punishment consequences for non‐U.S. citizens sentenced in federal courts between 1992 and 2009. Drawing from work in citizenship studies and sociolegal inequality, I hypothesize that nonstate members will be punished more severely than U.S. citizens, and any trends in Hispanic ethnicity over this period will be linked to punitive changes in the treatment of noncitizens. In line with this hypothesis, results indicate a considerable punishment gap between citizens and noncitizens—larger than minority‐white disparities. Additionally, this citizenship “penalty” has increased at the incarceration stage, explaining the majority of the increase in Hispanic‐white disparity over the past two decades. As international migration increases, these findings call for greater theoretical and empirical breadth in legal inequality research beyond traditional emphases, such as race and ethnicity.

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“The Price of Being Mexican”: Sentencing Disparities Between Noncitizen Mexican and Non-Mexican Latinos in the Federal Courts

Cited by 25 publications

References 20 publications

Geography and Sentencing: Does Country of Citizenship Influence Sentence Longevity?

Geography and Sentencing: Does Country of Citizenship Influence Sentence Longevity?

Defending the Homeland: Judicial Sentencing Practices for Federal Immigration Offenses

The New Face of Legal Inequality: Noncitizens and the Long-Term Trends in Sentencing Disparities across U.S. District Courts, 1992–2009

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