9:47 a.m., April 22, 2009----Jamie Longazel, a doctoral candidate in the University of Delaware's Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, recently accepted a fellowship from the American Bar Foundation (ABF), the nation's leading research institute for the empirical study of law.

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Longazel's particular area of interest within the criminal justice discipline is immigration law and society.

“The issue of immigration is also closely tied to issues of human rights. Undocumented immigrants are increasingly denied rights, not just as U.S. citizens, but also as human beings. Bringing these issues to the attention of both academics and the public can go a long way in improving the way we, as a society, treat those who have immigrated to our country,” said Longazel.

ABF Fellowships are given specifically to Ph.D. students who specialize in the field of law and social sciences. Students who are fortunate enough to become fellows must demonstrate a strong commitment to advancing the understanding and improvement of law, and the superior ability to do so.

“Past winners of this extremely prestigious fellowship are nearly always drawn from the world's top doctoral programs in Law and the Social Sciences,” said Benjamin Fleury-Steiner, associate professor and Longazel's adviser. “Jamie [Longazel] clearly demonstrated to the committee that his work on immigration law and society is on the cutting edge of the field.”

Longazel's dissertation, tentatively titled “Localized Backlash: Examining the Law's Constitutive Effects in a New Immigrant Destination,” was inspired by the Illegal Immigration Relief Act (IIRA), enacted by the city of Hazelton, Pa., in 2006.

In sum, the IIRA would classify certain immigrants as “illegal,” punish landlords and employees who do business with those immigrants, and would make English the official language of the town.

A Hazelton native, Longazel felt especially connected to the effects of the IIRA on his hometown and was driven to do his research by distaste for the ways inequality had manifested itself in Hazelton, due in part to the act.

“The backlash directed at Hazelton's [immigrant] population is part of a disturbing trend where workers in the global economy have been exploited and criminalized for the economic benefit of powerful, multinational corporate entities,” said Longazel. “And, while it is unfortunate to see this trend continuing, it [was] especially disconcerting to watch it unfold in my hometown.”

Longazel's research will attempt to describe the legal, economic, and organizational conditions that attracted an immigrant labor force to the city of Hazelton, the events preceding the passage of the IIRA, and its backlash.

This research fits in particularly well with the American Bar Foundation's commitment to producing real world results and having impact on the legal profession in general.

“My research is critical of the recent tendency of immigration legislation to be exclusionary, and a thoughtful, logical critique of such policies can decrease the likelihood that this type of legislation is seen as acceptable in the future,” said Longazel.

Longazel will spend the next two years in Chicago completing his dissertation, after which he will return to UD to defend and graduate.

Article by Blair Lee