Excluding Criminals or Mothers? How Vicarious Experiences Shape Legal Attitudes on Immigration Enforcement.

This article examines how individuals with a vicarious experience—specifically family members of those detained or deported by interior U.S. immigration enforcement—form and express legal attitudes toward immigration law. Based on 26 in-depth interviews, the study identifies a process termed "gendered legal attitude formation," where family members of male relatives invoke criminalization discourses, often legitimizing or ambivalently challenging enforcement, while family members of female relatives draw on motherhood discourses to delegitimize immigration enforcement as unjust and exclusionary. The findings highlight that legal attitudes after vicarious experiences are shaped by limited case information and prevailing gendered narratives, revealing complex perceptions that range from legal cynicism and estrangement to conditional legitimacy. This research contributes to understanding the gendered and racialized dynamics of immigration enforcement and its broader social and political consequences for immigrant families.