Sundquist on Immigration Status Evidence

Christian Sundquist (University of Pittsburgh - School of Law) has posted Immigration Status Evidence: Facilitating Juror Racial Bias Against Latinx Criminal Defendants on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

 

Dangerous political rhetoric demonizing migrants and racialized persons has altered social norms regarding the acceptability of racism while ushering in a new era of white nationalism across the world. The increasing normalization of racism has shaken bedrock American constitutional principles of equality and fair treatment under the law as it has become commonplace for courts to admit prejudicial evidence of a Latinx criminal defendant's lack of citizenship and undocumented immigration status in non-immigration proceedings. While many scholars have explored the modern criminalization of immigration ("crimmigration"), 1 and others have broadly identified how the criminal process can disadvantage non-citizen defendants, 2 this Article is the first to provide a critical analysis of the important constitutional and statutory issues raised by the admission of immigration status evidence against Latinx criminal defendants at trial and during sentencing.