Abstract

LOPEZ, Ramiro Antonio  and  VALDEZ-GARDEA, Gloria Ciria. Operation Streamline: legal and economic consequences for Mexican immigrants deported in the Arizona-Sonora region. Región y sociedad [online]. 2019, vol.31, e1144. ISSN 2448-4849.  https://doi.org/10.22198/rys2019/31/1144.

The purpose of this article is to analyze the legal and economic consequences of the United States’ zero-tolerance immigration policy towards Mexican immigrants, heads of families with mixed immigration status and deportees in the Arizona-Sonora region. In this qualitative study, the ethnographic method was used, and participant observation and semi-structured interviews were conducted in order to collect information on migrants deported through Nogales, Mexico, after having been prosecuted under Operation Streamline and served their sentence. The concept of structural violence was used as an interpretative framework. According to the results, the implementation of this migration policy violates the human rights of migrants to the detriment of their personal and family economies. The findings show that criminalization of undocumented migration, when Operation Streamline is implemented, violates the human rights of deportees and transforms family dynamics, producing a forced separation, which is painful and has far-reaching ramifications.

Keywords : Operation Streamline; mixed immigration status; aggravated felony; structural violence; Arizona-Sonora region; rights of migrants.

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