Included, but Deportable: A New Public Health Approach to Policies That Criminalize and Integrate Immigrants

• Published in: American journal of public health (1971) Vol. 109; no. 9; pp. 1171 - 1176
• Main Authors: De Trinidad Young, Maria-Elena, Wallace, Steven P
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Public Health Association 01.09.2019
• Subjects: AJPH Immigration & Justice; Citizenship; Collaboration; Criminalization; Critical theory; Deportation; Education; Enforcement; Ethnicity; Food stamps; Health care access; Health care policy; Health disparities; Health Policy; Health research; Health services; Health Services Accessibility - legislation & jurisprudence; Health surveillance; Hierarchies; Humans; Immigrants; Immigration; Immigration policy; Inequality; Integration; Labor law; Legislation; Medicaid; Minority & ethnic groups; Noncitizens; Policies; Public health; Public Health - legislation & jurisprudence; Social Determinants of Health; Social services; State laws; Undocumented Immigrants - legislation & jurisprudence; United States; Wages & salaries; Well being; United States; United States > US; Latin America
• ISSN: 0090-0036; 1541-0048
• DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2019.305171

There has been a burst of research on immigrant health in the United States and an increasing attention to the broad range of state and local policies that are social determinants of immigrant health. Many of these policies criminalize immigrants by regulating the "legality" of their day-to-day lives while others function to integrate immigrants through expanded rights and eligibility for health care, social services, and other resources.Research on the health impact of policies has primarily focused on the extremes of either criminalization or integration. Most immigrants in the United States, however, live in states that possess a combination of both criminalizing and integrating policies, resulting in distinct contexts that may influence their well-being.We present data describing the variations in criminalization and integration policies across states and provide a framework that identifies distinct but concurrent mechanisms of deportability and inclusion that can influence health. Future public health research and practice should address the ongoing dynamics created by both criminalization and integration policies as these likely exacerbate health inequities by citizenship status, race/ethnicity, and other social hierarchies.