Files
Abstract
Social policies that criminalize students can create a school environment that pushes immigrant students out of school and into immigration enforcement agencies' crosshairs. The school-to-prison pipeline is a well-documented phenomenon rooted in institutional racism and affects marginalized immigrant groups uniquely. The study aims to dissect the impact of the school-to-prison complex on immigrant students. Specifically, it analyzes how institutional racism impacts non-white immigrant groups. In this context, institutional racism is a combination of societal and civilizational racism. In other words, institutional racism is the dominant societal assumption of one race's dominance over all others, which guides the civilization's interpretation of the world. The present dissertation first sets the framework of the study. The second step deconstructs the school-to-deportation system by reviewing the historical, social, and administrative context of immigrant students and their connection to the school to the prison complex from a critical race theory perspective. After outlining the school-to-deportation system, the study then reviews the laws, policies, political and social movements affecting marginalized immigrant students' civil rights and their communities -- redlining, the Federal Housing Administration Act, Plyler v. Doe, ESEA reauthorization, and social stratification. The fourth step is where the study analyzes the correlation between U.S. economic trends and immigration flow, immigrant families' expectations, and factors affecting immigrant acculturation. The dissertation concludes, in the fifth step, reviewing and presenting some recommendations.