ABSTRACT
Denial of citizenship is a categorical boundary that at present excludes men and women from formal electoral processes in the USA – despite the fact that ‘the current blanket exclusion of noncitizens from the ballot is neither constitutionally required nor historically normal’ (Raskin 1993, 1394). In any case, citizenship is just the beginning of the story. We know that not all eligible residents become naturalized citizens; roughly 60% of long-term permanent residents have acquired citizenship (Mollenkopf and Hochschild 2009, 9). And important as citizenship is, by itself naturalization does not lead to political incorporation. Political detachment and passivity are widespread among all democratic citizens today, but it has a special onus for immigrants. If refugee and undocumented status amount to ‘civil death,’ de facto disenfranchisement – the result of eligible residents not pursuing citizenship or of naturalized citizens not engaging in political participation – amounts to political powerlessness. Without political organization and representation, they lack influence over national immigration policy, over state and local implementation of policy, and over the routine decisions by government that affect every aspect of citizens’ lives, from security to education.
