Blurring the Borders of Reentry: Socioeconomic Reintegration among Noncitizens Following Release from Immigration Detention.

This article examines the socioeconomic reintegration experiences of noncitizens released from U.S. immigration detention following imprisonment, a topic previously unexplored in research. Drawing on 321 longitudinal interviews with 121 detained noncitizens in California between 2013 and 2016, the study reveals that reintegration is shaped by intersecting factors including ethnicity, legal status, immigrant generation, and gender. Findings show that undocumented Latino men who arrived as adults often accessed informal, co-ethnic "brown-collar" labor markets that overlook criminal records, facilitating quicker employment despite low wages and job precarity. In contrast, women, childhood arrivals, non-Latinos, and those who lost legal status during detention faced greater barriers due to limited social networks and formal labor market restrictions. The study highlights how immigration detention disrupts immigrant integration trajectories and underscores the complex interplay of criminal and immigration legal systems in shaping post-release economic outcomes.