The 2006 immigration marches have become emblematic of Latinos’ united position on immigration. However, solidarity and collective action is only one group formation outcome of sociopolitical exclusion. By ignoring those Latinos who disrupt the tenet of ethnic solidarity against immigration restriction, research has failed to specify the mechanisms that lead some Latinos to depart from their own on a racially bifurcated debate. Drawing on interviews, I document the boundary-making strategies that Mexican-origin Latinos who are “anti-illegal immigration” deploy to formulate us and them groupings vis-à-vis immigrants. I show that respondents are politically conservative, highly nationalistic, and express a sense of nostalgia for “the past” in broad terms. They differentiate “us” from “them” in terms of national membership, distinguishing those who are deserving of the material and symbolic resources of the nation-state from those who are outsiders. Because they share racial/ethnic markers with immigrants, they engage in boundary-making strategies to split the Latino/Hispanic panethnic category from the Mexican national-origin category, thereby differentiating us (Americans) from them (foreigners). They deploy multicultural discourse that establishes the compatibility of national loyalties and ethnic affinities to reconcile their background with their political position.
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