Drawing on in-depth interviews with 50 Latin American immigrants in Dallas, Texas, this article uncovers systematic distinctions in how immigrants holding different legal statuses perceive the threat of deportation. Undocumented immigrants recognize the precarity of their legal status, but they sometimes feel that their existence off the radar of the US immigration regime promotes their long-term presence in the country. Meanwhile, documented immigrants perceive stability in their legal status, but they sometimes view their existence on the radar of the US immigration regime as disadvantageous to their long-term presence in the country. The article offers the concept of system embeddedness—individuals’ perceived legibility to institutions that maintain formal records—as a mechanism through which perceived visibility to the US immigration regime entails feelings of risk, and perceived invisibility feelings of safety. In this way, the punitive character of the US immigration regime can overwhelm its integrative functions, chilling immigrants out of opportunities for material and social well-being through legalization and legal status. More broadly, system embeddedness illuminates

中文翻译：

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在雷达上：系统嵌入性和拉丁美洲移民对驱逐出境的感知风险

本文通过对德克萨斯州达拉斯的 50 名拉丁美洲移民的深入采访，揭示了持有不同法律身份的移民如何看待驱逐威胁的系统差异。无证移民承认其合法身份的不稳定性，但他们有时会觉得他们的存在不受美国移民制度的关注，这促进了他们在该国的长期存在。与此同时，有证件的移民认为他们的法律地位稳定，但他们有时认为他们的存在对他们在美国的长期存在不利。这篇文章提供了系统嵌入性的概念——个人对维护正式记录的机构的感知易读性——作为一种机制，通过这种机制，对美国移民制度的感知可见性会带来风险感，以及安全感。通过这种方式，美国移民制度的惩罚性可以压倒其综合功能，使移民失去通过合法化和合法地位获得物质和社会福利的机会。更广泛地说，系统嵌入性照亮