America’s reputation as a “a nation of immigrants” contrasts starkly with the stringency of its immigration policies. The U.S. immigration system has always alternated between a project of racial selection and exclusion but has become increasingly punitive over time. The punitive turn in immigration has not been colorblind, as Latinx people have long borne the brunt of the U.S. government’s border enforcement, detention, and deportation policies. The U.S. immigration enforcement system’s disproportionate impact on  Latinx communities has led scholars to conclude that immigration law inscribes racialized illegality and criminality onto Latinx people creating exclusion and marginalization across generations.

In this entry we examine the repressive function and effects of U.S. immigration enforcement as an example of Layer 2, “controlling subpopulations” in Earl and Braithwaite’s “Layers of Political Repression” model. In keeping with the handbook’s focus, we define repression as “actions or policies that curtail or constrain any form of political engagement” (p. 228), including but not limited to social movement repression. Our goal is to connect the literature on immigration enforcement, which has demonstrated how federal and local control mechanisms target Latinx immigrants, into broader conversations about repression and collective responses to it in different parts of the country and by distinct stakeholders. Our argument is that racially targeted immigration enforcement produces an array of responses from Latinx immigrants and their allies, some of which can depress political engagement but others that may serve as a basis for collective organizing.