Over the past twenty years, the detainment and deportation of Central American and Mexican migrants have risen exponentially in the United States, and migrants' fear of deportation has increased accordingly. Fear of deportation (FOD) has repercussions for migrants and their families, friends, and communities, psychologically and culturally as well as economically and politically. However, few scholars have addressed the effects of deportation threats and migrant "deportability" (De Genova 2002) on Latinos' political practices. This project unites "gendered geographies of power" (Mahler and Pessar 2001) and "deportability" (De Genova 2002) with scholarship on political engagement and social citizenship to explore the relationship between detention, deportation, and political participation using a nationally representative sample from the Pew Hispanic Center's 2010 National Survey of Latinos (n=1,104). Latinos' acquaintance with deportees or detainees and their experiences of discrimination increase their FOD. Consistent with previous literature, these relationships are mediated by citizenship and immigration status. Furthermore, encounters with discrimination or immigration control agents increase Latinos' predicted odds of attending protests or demonstrations in support of immigration reform and their odds of discussing immigration policy, while FOD is predictive of attendance at immigration reform marches and protests but not talking about reform or plans to vote in the 2010 election.
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