How do Evangelical Latina\/o immigrants use their faith to contest “crimmigration,” or the increasing collaboration between local police and immigration enforcement?<\/p>\n
Join us for a special presentation, “Christian Identity, Immigration and Crime,” presented by Dr. Melissa Guzman, assistant professor of sociology at San Francisco State University, tonight (Wednesday<\/strong>) from 6:30 to 8 p.m.<\/strong> in Canyon Commons 101<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Based on two years of ethnographic research conducted across different Evangelical Mexican and Central American congregations in California, Guzman examines how the everyday lives of undocumented Latina\/o migrants are structured by the criminal justice system, as they negotiate the constant threat of deportation, avoid criminalization, and use their Christian identities to establish a sense of spiritual legitimacy in their communities.<\/p>\n By documenting how Evangelical Latina\/o migrants negotiate their religious identities in a context of crime and immigration, her research shows how criminalization affects different individuals in a community, not just the ones who come into direct contact with the criminal justice system by being arrested or deported.<\/p>\n Her work lies at the intersection of:<\/p>\n