The Cracks of Legality and Documentation During Residence in the United States Before Deportation to Mexico

ABSTRACT

The aim of the article is to analyze the relationship between the processes of deportation and the search for identity documents that the people interviewed in Tijuana carried out during their residence in the United States. Through the biographical method and with in-depth interviews, the main findings show that there are diverse and complex paths that migrants follow towards documentation or non-documentation in the United States that impact the forms of permanence and belonging in the different stages of life, the construction of social capital and affective and family networks, which after deportation will become fundamental factors of the conditions of reincorporation and the relationship with the State of the country of origin, which is manifested, mainly, through the control and surveillance over their bodies. All of this calls into question the hegemonic notion of political citizenship.

KEYWORDS:

• Documentation
• deportation
• citizenship
• legality
• migration
• United States
• Mexico

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).