Immigration and School Threat?: Exploring the Significance of the Border

• Published date: 01 November 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00224278221100124
• Author: Janice Iwama,Anthony A. Peguero,Miner P. “Trey” Marchbanks,John M. Eason,Jamilia Blake,Jienian Zhang
• Date: 01 November 2023
• Subject Matter: Articles

Immigration and

School Threat?:

Exploring the

Signif‌icance of the

Border

Janice Iwama

1

,

Anthony A. Peguero

2

,

Miner P. “Tr e y ”Marchbanks III

3

,

John M. Eason

4

, Jamilia Blake

5

,

and Jienian Zhang

4

Abstract

Objectives: The current study examines the relationship between immigra-

tion, school punishment, and place in schools near the U.S.-Mexico border

using a racial threat framework. Given the consequences of the immigra-

tion-crime link and the growing perception of the U.S.-Mexico border as

1

Department of Justice, Law & Criminology, American University, Washington, District of

Columbia, United States

2

Department of Sociology, Laboratory for the Study of Youth Inequality and Justice, Virginia

Tech, Blacksburg, VA

3

Public Policy Research Institute, Texas A&M University, Texas, United States

4

Department of Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United

States

5

Educational Psychology, Texas A&M University, Texas, United States

Corresponding Author:

Anthony A. Peguero, School of Criminology and Criminal Justice & School of Social and Family

Dynamics, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ.

E-mail: anthony.peguero@asu.edu

Article

Journal of Research in Crime and

Delinquency

2023, Vol. 60(6) 703–739

© The Author(s) 2022

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/00224278221100124

journals.sagepub.com/home/jrc

a crime-ridden place, this study explores how immigration within certain

places may differentially impact outcomes of school punishment.

Methods: Using Generalized Linear Modeling (GLM) with a logistic link

function, we examine the relationship between immigration and school vio-

lence by probing variation in school punishment and juvenile justice refer-

rals across Texas schools given their proximity to the U.S.-Mexico border.

Results: First, we f‌ind that Texas schools located near the U.S.-Mexico bor-

der have lower juvenile justice and school discipline rates net other vari-

ables in comparison to Texas schools away from the border. Second, we

observe a negative relationship between a rise in the immigrant student

population and punishment in Texas schools far from the U.S.-Mexico bor-

der and no relationship in Texas schools near the U.S.-Mexico border net of

other factors. Conclusion: The current study highlights that the local con-

text, such as proximity to the U.S.-Mexico border,is signif‌icant wh en exam-

ining the racial threat perspective in school punishment and warrants

further attention in future research.

Keywords

race/ethnicity, school crimes, juvenile delinquency

Introduction

The connection between racial threat and school punishment is a part of a

growing body of research that is often linked to the so-called

“school-to-prison pipeline”—the disproportionate funneling of people of

color out of schools and into the criminal justice system (Hughes et al.

2017; Kupchik 2016). By applying the racial threat hypothesis to schools,

scholars suggest that access to educational resources and opportunities is

threatened by the rise in the number of students of color (Olzak et al. 1994;

Renzulli and Evans 2005). As the population increases, fears are stoked

because of the perception that educational resources and opportunities are a

zero-sum game. Recent studies have demonstrated correlations between

large populationsof students of color and increases in school security, surveil-

lance, punishment,and referrals (Peguero et al. 2018;Rios 2011, 2017; Welch

and Payne 2010, 2012, 2018). However, little is known about the role of

immigration in relation to the racial threat hypothesis in U.S. public schools.

The immigration and crime link is a complex social and political issue.

Often discussed in public forums, some political leaders have contributed

704 Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 60(6)

to the growing misperception that the U.S.–Mexico border is an entry point

for “immigrant criminals”who are “invading”the U.S. and therefore, war-

rants heightened security and surveillance (Durán 2018; Durán and Posadas

2016; Slack et al. 2017). Despite extant scholarly literature demonstrating

that immigrants are less likely to be involved in crime and delinquency

(Desmond and Kubrin 2009; Kubrin and Desmond 2015; Portes and

Rumbaut 2014), the widespread belief that immigrants are “criminals”per-

sists across the U.S. and dominates the public’s perceptions of Hispanic

1

student populations regardless of their immigrant status. As one of the

fastest growing student populations in many school districts, this narrative

inf‌luences how teachers, administrators, and staff perceive immigrant stu-

dents as delinquent, misbehaving, disrespectful, and problematic (Bondy

2011; Ngo 2012; Peguero 2019; Peguero and Bondy 2015). While several

studies demonstrate that immigrant students are less likely to engage in

school misbehavior, immigrant students remain vulnerable as they are dis-

proportionately punished in school (DiPietro et al. 2015; Peguero 2011;

Peguero et al. 2017). We build from these studies by investigating the rela-

tionship between immigration, school punishment, and juvenile justice

referrals across different spaces. Specif‌ically, this study aims to f‌ill a gap

in the literature by examining the variation in this relationship in Texas

schools based on their proximity to the U.S.-Mexico border.

To this end, we f‌irst review relevant research to develop the link between

racial threat and school punishment. Next, we discuss the signif‌icance of the

U.S.-Mexico border and immigrant students to help us better understand the

link between immigrant threat and school punishment. We then describe the

data for this study drawn from the Texas Education Agency’s (TEA) Public

Education Information Management System (PEIMS) to examine the rela-

tionship between immigration, school punishment, and juvenile justice

referrals in Texas schools. Guided by a racial threat framework, we

expect that school discipline and juvenile justice referral rates will be

higher in Texas schools near the U.S.-Mexico border in comparison to

other Texas schools. We test for these effects while statistically controlling

for known factors associated with school discipline and juvenile justice

referral rates. We further expand the literature on racial threat and school

punishment by examining how the proportion of children of immigrants

within a school moderates school discipline and juvenile justice referral

rates in Texas schools near the U.S.-Mexico border in comparison to

other Texas schools. The f‌indings highlight the complexities between

racial and ethnic threat, immigration, and the importance of place given

the widespread misperceptions of Hispanic immigrants along the

Iwama et al. 705