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12 Geo. J. L. & Mod. Critical Race Persp. 17 (2020)
The Racialization of Crimes Involving Moral Turpitude

handle is hein.journals/gjmodco12 and id is 20 raw text is: 



                               NOTES


 The   Racialization of Crimes Involving Moral Turpitude


                            ELIJAH T. STAGGERS*


                            TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION ...........    ...........................................  18

  I. DEFINING THE PHRASE CRIME  INVOLVING MORAL  TURPITUDE . . . . . . 20
      A.   The Original White Supremacist Trope of Race-Based Morality: The
          N egro Rascal ................................... ..        20
      B.  Presumptions of Race-Based Morality in the Immigration Act of
          1917.............................................             23
          1.   Race-Based Morality Shifted During the Progressive Era to
              Target Non-Anglo-Saxon  European Immigrants ........      23
          2.   Congress Placed the Crime Involving Moral Turpitude
               Section into the Immigration Act of 1917 to Exclude Eastern
               and Southern European Races..................... ..      24

 II. THE  BOARD OF IMMIGRATION APPEALS' DEFINITION OF CRIME INVOLVING
     MORAL  TURPITUDE  IMPROPERLY RELIES ON SHIFTING SOCIETAL VIEWS. .  25

III. EXPOSING THE FLAWS OF THE GOVERNMENT'S  ARGUMENT  THAT  CRIMINAL
     STREET GANG  ACTIVITY IS A CRIME INVOLVING MORAL TURPITUDE . . .   27
     A.   Hernandez-Gonzalez  v. Holder Rejected on Race-Neutral Terms an
          Issue with Clear Racial Implications ..................... ... 27
      B.  Condemnation  ofLatinness: Creating the MS-13 Animal ......   29
      C.   The Latinx Subjugated Knowledge: How U.S. Colonialism Bears
          Moral Responsibility For Creating Latinx Street Gangs ..........  31
          1.  The  United State as a White Settler Imperialist Machine .. 32
          2.  White  Settler Colonialism Prompted Westward Expansion
               and Caused the Displacement and Subjugation of Mexican
               N atives..................................... ..         33
          3.  The  United States' Military and Economic Influence Caused
              Mass  Migration of Latinx Groups to the United States . .. 35


  * Editor in Chief, GEO. J. L. & MOD. GRIT. RACE PERS. (Vol. 11); J.D., Georgetown University Law
Center (2019); M.A., Georgetown University (2016); B.A., University of Georgia (2014). Special thanks to
my mentor, Professor Sherally Munshi, for giving me the courage to write this piece and for guiding me along
the way. © 2020, Elijah T. Staggers.


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