UC Berkeley

Illegal alienage in the U.S. is among the most visible contemporary symbols of law's failure, or rather of its failure to determine fully the state of the world through its declarations. The two major arguments of this dissertation flow from this insight. The dissertation makes two distinct, but related arguments about: 1) the fragmented nature of contemporary U.S. "(illegal alienage) law in action" and by extension, contemporary law and state power; and 2) latent normative implications of "work" in contemporary America.

First, this study of "illegal alienage in action" shows in detailed relief how modern U.S. "law in action" is not the product of a unified or unequivocally speaking sovereign, but rather a result of the organizationally and institutionally mediated actions (or careful attempts at "inactions") of often conflicting sets of street-level bureaucrats in a federal administrative state. These bureaucrats are often overwhelmingly concerned with their own unique normative goals rather than with illegal alienage. This dissertation demonstrates how the institutionally mediated actions of various bureaucratic officials matter even, or especially, for something as seemingly one dimensional as "belonging" or "not belonging" in the United States.

Second, in light of the fact that justice in matters of immigration and alienage is particularly uncertain, an important question of what, besides "the prior pronouncements of the federal government" has normative salience vis-a-vis illegal alienage emerges. Put slightly differently, the operative questions here are: On what normative ground do illegal aliens most successfully make claims against the state or against the citizens of the state? And relatedly, on what normative ground do street level bureaucrats most successfully intervene to protect or expand the rights of illegal aliens within their jurisdictions? This dissertation will show how "work" or "labor" is the normative ground that undergirds both of these processes, and it will consider the political theoretical importance of this.