Dissertation Title: "The Administration of Illegality and Mexican Migrant Life"
Abstract: This dissertation examines the constellation of legal, disciplinary, and administrative practices that redefined the lived experience of undocumented Mexican migrants from the 1970s to the present in San Diego, California. Drawing on queer of color critique, I elaborate a theory of bureaucratic power enacted in what I call “administrative checkpoints,” that circumscribe the life chances and social mobility of criminalized non-citizens. Through careful excavation of government records and policy briefs, this study demonstrates how the U.S. government enlisted social agencies in the practice of immigration law enforcement. Everyday applications such as health care and drivers licenses became potential sites for entrapment, criminalization, and punishment. In response, through careful ethnography of migrant self-defense and care practices, I show that migrant women and transgender migrants continuously invent forms of sociality to frustrate and deny the state that power. This study foregrounds migrants as extraordinary analysts and critics of state violence.