Aimee Hernandez Perez | 2025 I.S. Symposium

Name: Aimee Hernandez Perez
Title: Two Systems, One Harm: The Intersection of the Criminal Justice System and the Immigration Detention System
Major: Sociology
Advisors: Anne Nurse; Michael Miyawaki

The present study utilizes qualitative interviews to explore the intersection between the criminal justice system and the immigration detention system. Interviews were conducted with four immigrants who are currently holding status and three immigration professionals. The literature used in this study explored the effects of private prisons, public opinion, the jailing of immigrants and crimmigration. The theories that were used to understand the immigration experience were authored by W.E.B. Du Bois, Karl Marx, and Michel Foucault. The themes that emerged from the interviews include a) fear for the immigrant community, b) human rights violations, c) the concept of crimmigration. The themes demonstrated how the intersection of the criminal justice system and the immigration detention system negatively impact the immigrant community. The project ends with policy suggestions for law enforcement and the immigration system.

Posted in Symposium 2025 on May 1, 2025.